Santa Cruz Island
The most representative animals of the Galápagos are the famous giant tortoises, which occur on many of the islands, and that is perhaps one of the main reasons visitors come for.
When we awoke this morning we were arriving in Santa Cruz Island, where people have more chances to see land tortoises really close. We headed first towards the Charles Darwin Research Station, where we watched these reptiles in different corrals from tiny babies to medium-sized individuals and finally at the end we could see the really big ones. This is where they are being raised in captivity in an attempt to restore some of the races that are still threatened mainly by introduced mammals.
In the afternoon we got on board busses and we went to explore the highlands because we knew that we might encounter some of these giants in the wild. We certainly did run into some tortoises that were all over the place eating delicious grass, but they were not as friendly as the ones found at the Darwin Center.
Giant tortoises are definitely a symbol of the islands, and we all want them to last for several more generations to come.
The most representative animals of the Galápagos are the famous giant tortoises, which occur on many of the islands, and that is perhaps one of the main reasons visitors come for.
When we awoke this morning we were arriving in Santa Cruz Island, where people have more chances to see land tortoises really close. We headed first towards the Charles Darwin Research Station, where we watched these reptiles in different corrals from tiny babies to medium-sized individuals and finally at the end we could see the really big ones. This is where they are being raised in captivity in an attempt to restore some of the races that are still threatened mainly by introduced mammals.
In the afternoon we got on board busses and we went to explore the highlands because we knew that we might encounter some of these giants in the wild. We certainly did run into some tortoises that were all over the place eating delicious grass, but they were not as friendly as the ones found at the Darwin Center.
Giant tortoises are definitely a symbol of the islands, and we all want them to last for several more generations to come.
