Giant Tortoises living on the small Galapagos island of Española have made a remarkable population comeback.
Giant Tortoises living on the small Galapagos island of Española have made a remarkable population comeback.
It took a long time, but conservationists have boosted the animal’s numbers from less than 20 to over a thousand.
The 1960s were a particularly bad time for the creatures as there were only 15 of them.
Their small population and density on the island came with a number of consequences, which included the inability to locate one another for mating.
A primary agent in their decline was the presence of feral goats.
Since the 1800s, the wild ruminants had been consuming and destroying a number of the tortoises’ primary food sources.
They even managed to lay waste to a thousand years of tall cactus growth by chewing on the plants’ roots and trunks.
Efforts to get the goats off of the island began in the 1970s and by the 90s they were completely gone.
Environmental renewal initiatives were combined with a captive breeding program.
Several of the island’s last surviving turtles were taken to another location to reproduce.
Their offspring were then returned to Española.
Scientists say that the struggle isn’t entirely over as it will be quite a while before the island’s ecosystem recovers.
