The giant tortoise known in life as Lonesome George is on his way to the expert taxidermists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

George was the last known member of his subspecies chelonoidis abingdoni, a variety of the Galapagos giant tortoises, when he died in June 2012. George’s body has been in cold storage since then.

For the trip to the U.S.A., the directors of the Galapagos National Park have created a wooden box covered in fiberglass and insulation, meant to maintain the cargo’s temperature for up to 48 hours.

The embalming is expected to take eight or nine months. George will then be returned to the Galapagos to become a permanent exhibit at a remodelled Interpretation Centre.

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