Santa Cruz Island
A giant tortoise is such a mysterious creature. When I look at them I think about the many happenings in its life.
No one knows exactly for how long a Galapagos tortoise lives, it could be a hundred years, it could be 150 years, or it could be even more. There are so many things that one can experience in a year-long life that it is amazing to think about the many events occurring in a 100-year-long life.
These tortoises probably saw how many of their kind were taken away from their home islands. They might have seen the first settlers of the Galapagos, maybe even my grandparents when they landed on Santa Cruz Island.
Today they see how much is being done to protect them. More than 3000 have already been repatriated to their different home islands after their five years of good care at the Charles Darwin Research Station. There is a high survival rate in the wild, and many of the problems that tortoises had in their home islands have been completely eradicated. Like the goats from Española and the pigs from Santiago.
I look at these tortoises and I feel not only curiosity, but also a lot of pride.
A giant tortoise is such a mysterious creature. When I look at them I think about the many happenings in its life.
No one knows exactly for how long a Galapagos tortoise lives, it could be a hundred years, it could be 150 years, or it could be even more. There are so many things that one can experience in a year-long life that it is amazing to think about the many events occurring in a 100-year-long life.
These tortoises probably saw how many of their kind were taken away from their home islands. They might have seen the first settlers of the Galapagos, maybe even my grandparents when they landed on Santa Cruz Island.
Today they see how much is being done to protect them. More than 3000 have already been repatriated to their different home islands after their five years of good care at the Charles Darwin Research Station. There is a high survival rate in the wild, and many of the problems that tortoises had in their home islands have been completely eradicated. Like the goats from Española and the pigs from Santiago.
I look at these tortoises and I feel not only curiosity, but also a lot of pride.
