A captive breeding program has helped a species of giant Galapagos tortoise recover from near extinction, according to a new survey on the island of Española. The giant tortoise, Geochelone hoodensis, an iconic species encountered by Charles Darwin during his expeditions two centuries ago, had been all but decimated by humans in the decades that followed, primarily by sailors who slaughtered the tortoises for their meat. In the 1970s, only about 15 of the species remained, said Washington Tapia, of Ecuador’s Galapagos National Park Service and leader of the survey. The 10-day survey, conducted on the archipelago’s southernmost 
island, found that there are now 1,500 to 2,000 tortoises on the island. “During the expedition we found nests, recently hatched tortoises, and adults born on Española, which indicates that the tortoise population is doing well,” Tapia said. Key to the recovery was the destruction of goats that had been introduced to the island by sailors and then devoured the island’s vegetation, making it uninhabitable for the tortoises. Once the goats were removed in the 1990s, numerous tortoises that had been transplanted for the captive breeding program were returned to Española.
istock
A giant tortoise