Santa Cruz Island
It was only a few days ago when we heard the good news. People have been sending e-mails, asking questions and text messaging. My dad was one of the first: “Daughter, I am sure this will make you happy: George is going to be a father”.
Indeed, after 36 years of high expectations, and all the imaginable comments about this famous Galápagos tortoise's social behaviour, preferences, taste and habits have finally paid off; or at least, that’s what we hope.
On July 21, while inspecting George’s private corral at the Charles Darwin Breeding Center, park rangers found a bright new nest. They followed the normal procedure: opened it and removed the eggs to be incubated in the laboratory. Out of nine eggs laid, four were completely broken, two had cracked shells, and only three were intact. These were placed in incubators, two at a temperature of 29.5 °C (85.1 °F) to obtain females and one at 28 °C (82.4 °F) to obtain a male. Now we just have to wait; in more than a hundred days we’ll know if they had been fertilized.
When did the romance begin? We aren’t too sure about it, because George had always been hostile towards his female companions, two Wolf volcano tortoises who were thought to be the closest subspecies to George’s. Since 1993 he has been obligated to share his pen with them, but as we say in Spanish juntos pero no revueltos, “together but not that so”, that was George’s slogan. Only in the last months he was reported allowing them to approach and share his dining table during their meals.
It is a bit unfair that George’s companions do not have names, only numbers; female 107 is the proud mother of what could be the beginning of a repatriation program that may take centuries to accomplish; however this is the first step towards saving Pinta Island subspecies. So far, George is the last tortoise of his subspecies.
It was only a few days ago when we heard the good news. People have been sending e-mails, asking questions and text messaging. My dad was one of the first: “Daughter, I am sure this will make you happy: George is going to be a father”.
Indeed, after 36 years of high expectations, and all the imaginable comments about this famous Galápagos tortoise's social behaviour, preferences, taste and habits have finally paid off; or at least, that’s what we hope.
On July 21, while inspecting George’s private corral at the Charles Darwin Breeding Center, park rangers found a bright new nest. They followed the normal procedure: opened it and removed the eggs to be incubated in the laboratory. Out of nine eggs laid, four were completely broken, two had cracked shells, and only three were intact. These were placed in incubators, two at a temperature of 29.5 °C (85.1 °F) to obtain females and one at 28 °C (82.4 °F) to obtain a male. Now we just have to wait; in more than a hundred days we’ll know if they had been fertilized.
When did the romance begin? We aren’t too sure about it, because George had always been hostile towards his female companions, two Wolf volcano tortoises who were thought to be the closest subspecies to George’s. Since 1993 he has been obligated to share his pen with them, but as we say in Spanish juntos pero no revueltos, “together but not that so”, that was George’s slogan. Only in the last months he was reported allowing them to approach and share his dining table during their meals.
It is a bit unfair that George’s companions do not have names, only numbers; female 107 is the proud mother of what could be the beginning of a repatriation program that may take centuries to accomplish; however this is the first step towards saving Pinta Island subspecies. So far, George is the last tortoise of his subspecies.
