How old is this Galapagos giant tortoise? Is it old, or is it young? How old does "old" really mean? What does age mean for a centenarian creature?
They seem like philosophical questions, but these are the most frequently asked ones when we encounter the Galapagos tortoises on our Wednesday visit.
There is no way to tell the age of this kind of reptile. For the first 20 years they grow up very rapidly, therefore the rings help to estimate the age. But after they become sexually mature (so after 20), they grow slowly and the rings on the scutes of the carapace are not that obvious any more.
They always keep an ancient look. Always parsimonious, always wrinkled. This picture could be the one of a 60-year-old tortoise, or a 100-year-old tortoise, but it happens to be the picture of a 3 to 4 year old "baby" from Espanola Island.
Espanola had 14 tortoises left by 1972. Since then the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station have worked together in a successful breeding program to save this subspecies. Today there are more than 1000 tortoises on the island, and we know that they are already breeding there in the wild.
The baby in this photo will see its home island in a few more years.
