158 Giant Tortoises Reintroduced to Their Native Galápagos Island After 180 Years
158 captive-bred juvenile giant tortoises have been reintroduced to their native Floreana Island in the Galápagos Islands after 180 years since the species was declared extinct, thanks to the hard work of the Floreana Ecological Restoration Project.
More than 150 giant tortoises have been reintroduced to Floreana Island in Ecuador’s famed Galápagos archipelago, where they disappeared more than a century ago. It marks a major step in a reintroduction program aimed at restoring a lineage that disappeared locally in the 19th century.
These beautiful tortoises, who are considered to be the largest of the “extant terrestrial cold-blooded animals”, are part of a historic program that allows these proven genetic relatives of the original inhabitants to be reintroduced in phases in accordance with strict guidelines.
According to the environment ministry, genetic research enabled the breeding programme and will allow a phased return of tortoises based on technical criteria. The release is also intended to lay the groundwork for reintroducing up to 12 endemic species considered locally extinct on the island.
The genetic connection was discovered when researchers found a micro-colony of these tortoises living at Volcán Wolf (Wolf Volcano) on nearby Isabela Island. It appears that whalers had “stored” them where they could find them, but never came back for them.
by 1850, the species had been hunted to extinction by whalers in search of food. Incredibly in the early 2000s some tortoises with genetic ancestry from Floreana were discovered living on Wolf Volcano. Ironically, it transpires that this micro-colony were originally unloaded by those same whalers that drove them to extinction, and thereby unknowingly revived their population.
via Born In Space
