Santa Cruz Island
The morning dawned bright and sunny over the rolling hills of the second largest island in the Galápagos Archipelago. Although the official Ecuadorian name of this island group is now the “Columbus Archipelago,” re-baptized in 1892 to honour the discovery of the Americas by the famous explorer, this name has never stuck. It is no wonder, as Columbus never even reached the Pacific, unlike the majestic animals the islands were originally named after.
Once upon a time, aeons ago, a small Chilean desert tortoise was accidentally swept away from its homeland by the strong Humboldt Current that bathes the arid coasts of that beautiful country. Its resilient reptilian nature allowed it to surmount the daunting barrier of hundreds of miles of open ocean, until it finally reached land: the tips of giant submarine volcanoes that had eventually breached the endless Pacific Ocean, thus offering salvation to the unfortunate animal. Life was tough in its new environment of barren lava flows and leafless, spiny vegetation, but the tortoise found an area to lay the eggs it was carrying and to survive the hostile environment of the strange isles. Isolated from the parent population and lacking any real competition, the descendants of this animal eventually evolved into a unique species, and became giants. They also spread among the various islands of the group, each of which has different characteristics that the tortoises adapted to, thus eventually forming unique populations on each one. On low, barren islands those that could reach the vegetation on the bushes did better than their siblings and the tortoise carapaces on these islands gradually adopted a shape reminiscent of high-pommeled saddles to allow their necks to stretch up further. When the first human visitors reached the islands they were astounded by the sheer numbers of the animals they dubbed “Galápago,” an old Spanish word for saddle – they were undoubtedly the species that best represented the newly-discovered archipelago, which was named after them.
For many years the story seemed to be heading towards a sad ending, as these gentle giants from another era were rapidly driven towards extinction, much as their remote kin in the Indian Ocean had been before them. This same resilience that allowed them to colonize the Galápagos was now their downfall, as it permitted passing ships to store them in their hulls, hundreds at a time, alive, as a source of precious fresh meat. Even once this practice was dropped thanks to the advent of refrigeration, the giant tortoises continued to be threatened due to the loss of habitat and unfair competition brought about by mankind’s introduction of hundreds of foreign species – species that once here are much better equipped to use up the scarce resources of the land, but that could never have crossed the watery barrier on their own.
This seemingly unavoidable fate might now be averted by the hard work of the conservation organisations involved with the islands in the last forty years: the successful breeding program we visited today coupled with an attempt to restore the original habitats the tortoise found on its arrival.
Thanks to these and the support of thousands of caring people the world over, it seems that this story might have a happy ending after all…
The morning dawned bright and sunny over the rolling hills of the second largest island in the Galápagos Archipelago. Although the official Ecuadorian name of this island group is now the “Columbus Archipelago,” re-baptized in 1892 to honour the discovery of the Americas by the famous explorer, this name has never stuck. It is no wonder, as Columbus never even reached the Pacific, unlike the majestic animals the islands were originally named after.
Once upon a time, aeons ago, a small Chilean desert tortoise was accidentally swept away from its homeland by the strong Humboldt Current that bathes the arid coasts of that beautiful country. Its resilient reptilian nature allowed it to surmount the daunting barrier of hundreds of miles of open ocean, until it finally reached land: the tips of giant submarine volcanoes that had eventually breached the endless Pacific Ocean, thus offering salvation to the unfortunate animal. Life was tough in its new environment of barren lava flows and leafless, spiny vegetation, but the tortoise found an area to lay the eggs it was carrying and to survive the hostile environment of the strange isles. Isolated from the parent population and lacking any real competition, the descendants of this animal eventually evolved into a unique species, and became giants. They also spread among the various islands of the group, each of which has different characteristics that the tortoises adapted to, thus eventually forming unique populations on each one. On low, barren islands those that could reach the vegetation on the bushes did better than their siblings and the tortoise carapaces on these islands gradually adopted a shape reminiscent of high-pommeled saddles to allow their necks to stretch up further. When the first human visitors reached the islands they were astounded by the sheer numbers of the animals they dubbed “Galápago,” an old Spanish word for saddle – they were undoubtedly the species that best represented the newly-discovered archipelago, which was named after them.
For many years the story seemed to be heading towards a sad ending, as these gentle giants from another era were rapidly driven towards extinction, much as their remote kin in the Indian Ocean had been before them. This same resilience that allowed them to colonize the Galápagos was now their downfall, as it permitted passing ships to store them in their hulls, hundreds at a time, alive, as a source of precious fresh meat. Even once this practice was dropped thanks to the advent of refrigeration, the giant tortoises continued to be threatened due to the loss of habitat and unfair competition brought about by mankind’s introduction of hundreds of foreign species – species that once here are much better equipped to use up the scarce resources of the land, but that could never have crossed the watery barrier on their own.
This seemingly unavoidable fate might now be averted by the hard work of the conservation organisations involved with the islands in the last forty years: the successful breeding program we visited today coupled with an attempt to restore the original habitats the tortoise found on its arrival.
Thanks to these and the support of thousands of caring people the world over, it seems that this story might have a happy ending after all…
