Santa Cruz Island
Today we arrived to one of the five inhabited islands that we have in this enchanted archipelago, Santa Cruz Island. Puerto Ayora, its capital, is a town located right along the sea shore with a population of about twelve thousand people. Here is where the Charles Darwin Research Station was established in 1959. Many different studies have taken and are taking place to protect the exceptional wildlife of this remote archipelago. We visited one of the most important conservation programs, the breeding center of giant tortoises. We observed baby tortoises from one to five years old, several older ones that can be over a hundred or two hundred years old. It is very difficult to estimate age in reptiles, mainly because nobody has been alive long enough to tell.
In the afternoon we visited the highlands. We observed the giant tortoises in the wild, in their natural habitat. The smaller ancestors of these gigantic reptiles came once from the mainland to the Galápagos. Little by little isolation and many different factors changed their size from regular to giant. Nowadays we have eleven different subspecies of giant tortoises in the Galápagos. It is estimated that at the time of buccaneers and whalers, about three hundred years ago, the population of giant tortoises reached a hundred thousand Galápagos giant tortoises. To date estimations say that after centuries of over exploitation there are only around fifteen thousand left in the wild. The latter is the main reason why the Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station are working together implementing big efforts to increase the numbers to reach a healthy and sustainable population on the islands. All our guests this week, adults and kids, had a blast not only watching these amazing creatures but also learning about their natural history. One specimen in particular is a very popular and famous one: Lonesome George is the very last one of his specific species; he is estimated to be less than a hundred years old. Luckily he has at least another hundred more years to find a mate.
Today we arrived to one of the five inhabited islands that we have in this enchanted archipelago, Santa Cruz Island. Puerto Ayora, its capital, is a town located right along the sea shore with a population of about twelve thousand people. Here is where the Charles Darwin Research Station was established in 1959. Many different studies have taken and are taking place to protect the exceptional wildlife of this remote archipelago. We visited one of the most important conservation programs, the breeding center of giant tortoises. We observed baby tortoises from one to five years old, several older ones that can be over a hundred or two hundred years old. It is very difficult to estimate age in reptiles, mainly because nobody has been alive long enough to tell.
In the afternoon we visited the highlands. We observed the giant tortoises in the wild, in their natural habitat. The smaller ancestors of these gigantic reptiles came once from the mainland to the Galápagos. Little by little isolation and many different factors changed their size from regular to giant. Nowadays we have eleven different subspecies of giant tortoises in the Galápagos. It is estimated that at the time of buccaneers and whalers, about three hundred years ago, the population of giant tortoises reached a hundred thousand Galápagos giant tortoises. To date estimations say that after centuries of over exploitation there are only around fifteen thousand left in the wild. The latter is the main reason why the Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station are working together implementing big efforts to increase the numbers to reach a healthy and sustainable population on the islands. All our guests this week, adults and kids, had a blast not only watching these amazing creatures but also learning about their natural history. One specimen in particular is a very popular and famous one: Lonesome George is the very last one of his specific species; he is estimated to be less than a hundred years old. Luckily he has at least another hundred more years to find a mate.
