Conservationists are thrilled at the discovery of a species of giant tortoise — believed to have been extinct 100 years ago — from the remote volcanic island of Galapagos in Ecuador.
In celebration of this historic discovery, the Turtle Conservancy and the Global Wildlife Conservation are pledging a $1,00,000 to further conservation efforts of the Fernandina Giant Tortoise. Fernandina Giant Tortoise last sighted in 1906. The rediscovery has raised hopes to breeding the species which is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “critically endangered and possibly extinct.”
Forrest Galante, biologist and host of Animal Planet’s “Extinct or Alive”, who had stumbled upon the adult female tortoise, said it to be around 100 years old.
Galante’s team, including Galapagos national park ranger Jeffery Malaga and the director of the Galapagos Conservancy, Washington Tapia, crossed a three-mile stretch of hardened lava flow to arrive at an area identified the previous day as potential habitat that could support a population of Fernandina tortoise, according to a Animal Planet statement.
Having positively identified tortoise scat in the field, the team located an active bedding site before finding the animal nearby. The tortoise was found sheltering from the equatorial sun, buried deep under a pile of brush. A team of international turtle biologists at the Turtle Conservancy studied photos and video of the tortoise and confirmed it is likely to be Chelonoidis phantasticus.
“Since only one other specimen of this species has ever been found (a deceased male collected in 1906), we have never seen a female of the species,” said Anders Rhodin of the Turtle Conservancy and IUCN specialist group.
The female tortoise is in good health but underweight, unsurprising considering the sparse vegetation in the area she lived in on the volcano. She has been taken to the Fausto Llerena Tortoise Breeding Center in Isla Santa Cruz.
“This facility will ensure her ongoing survival, a healthy diet and perhaps, if sperm retention has occurred, fertile eggs and offspring. The hope is that her discovery will prompt new searches and ongoing funding for the location of a suitable mate with the ultimate goal of re-releasing healthy animals back onto the island.
The breeding centre has successfully bred and re-released 4000 tortoises.
“As a biologist and someone who has dedicated my life to the pursuit of animals believed extinct, this is by far my greatest scientific accomplishment and proudest moment,” said Galante.