Today we are visiting Santa Cruz Island, home of the largest giant tortoises that inhabit this enchanted archipelago, and we are ready to learn about their behavior. The Charles Darwin Research Station and the National Park Service have the Breeding Centre; the two as partners have managed to save the giant tortoises of the Galapagos from going extinct.
The program started back in the 1960s with the Española sub species. Their numbers where dwindling, due to the presence of introduced goats and donkeys to the island, who forage the vegetation and trample the landscape, leaving the tortoises not only without food but also without shelter. After years of research and hard work, the programs have been a 100% success, and today over 2000 young tortoises have been repatriated to their island of origin and are now reproducing in the wild without human intervention. This is the reason why the Galapagos National Park Service, together with the Charles Darwin Foundation, are among the most respected conservation institutions in the world.
In the afternoon, encounters with tortoises in the wild kept our groups excited and busy. It was amazing to see them in their natural habitat, and our photographers took some amazing pictures. A bit of drizzle made the scene very dramatic. Walking with this incredible, friendly creatures made us feel transported in time, back maybe a hundred years ago, when the tortoises roamed the islands by themselves. Another incredible experience to add to our list!
