Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz is my Home Island, and home to the famous Galápagos giant tortoises, too. This island is also the home of the leading institutions in conservation for the Galápagos, such as the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) and the Galápagos National Park Service (GNPS). Since the sixties, they have joined efforts to restore the endangered ecosystems around the archipelago.
Today we went to visit the captive breeding programs for giant tortoises; it was great to see the baby tortoises from different islands, growing very healthy and in large numbers. One of the many highlights of this place was to see the legendary lonesome George, which happens to be the last survivor of Pinta Island, located at the northern side of the Galápagos.
The breeding program for these reptiles have been so successful that entire populations have been saved from extinction; the Española tortoises is one of the cases, represented by the prolific “super Diego” that happens to be the main responsible for the more than one thousand and five hundred babies restored in the island!
Later in the morning, local buses took us to the highlands to enjoy a delicious lunch; with a nice environment surrounding us, we headed even further into the forest to find more tortoises, but this time in their natural habitat. This was the best place and the easier way to get to see them simply roaming in the middle of the forest. We also visited a Scalesia forest (giant Daisy’s) which is a member of the Aster family and has evolved into giant tree-like plants. The lush forest is full of epiphytes which creates a good habitat for many land birds such as Darwin’s finches and the always beautiful vermilion flycatcher.
Santa Cruz is my Home Island, and home to the famous Galápagos giant tortoises, too. This island is also the home of the leading institutions in conservation for the Galápagos, such as the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) and the Galápagos National Park Service (GNPS). Since the sixties, they have joined efforts to restore the endangered ecosystems around the archipelago.
Today we went to visit the captive breeding programs for giant tortoises; it was great to see the baby tortoises from different islands, growing very healthy and in large numbers. One of the many highlights of this place was to see the legendary lonesome George, which happens to be the last survivor of Pinta Island, located at the northern side of the Galápagos.
The breeding program for these reptiles have been so successful that entire populations have been saved from extinction; the Española tortoises is one of the cases, represented by the prolific “super Diego” that happens to be the main responsible for the more than one thousand and five hundred babies restored in the island!
Later in the morning, local buses took us to the highlands to enjoy a delicious lunch; with a nice environment surrounding us, we headed even further into the forest to find more tortoises, but this time in their natural habitat. This was the best place and the easier way to get to see them simply roaming in the middle of the forest. We also visited a Scalesia forest (giant Daisy’s) which is a member of the Aster family and has evolved into giant tree-like plants. The lush forest is full of epiphytes which creates a good habitat for many land birds such as Darwin’s finches and the always beautiful vermilion flycatcher.
