Page 10 - Tracking Tortoises: The Mission to Save a Galápagos Giant
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a GaLÁpaGOs TOrtoIse tiMeLiNe
3 to 2 million BCE Giant tortoises arrive in the Galápagos Islands, 1969 With tortoise populations in critical danger, the
reproduce, and evolve. Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin
Foundation set up a captive-rearing program for
Before 1535 It’s possible that pre-Columbian people from
modern-day Ecuador or Peru visit the islands during tortoise hatchlings.
this time period. Researchers are analyzing pottery 1970 Twenty tortoises are released on Pinzón Island to try
and other archaeological finds to learn more. to bring back the population.
1535 Tomás de Berlanga, the bishop of Panama, gets lost 1972 A male Pinta Island tortoise found alive in the wild is
on a voyage and lands in the Galápagos Islands. brought to the tortoise research center on Santa Cruz,
where he’s named Lonesome George.
1600–1700s Early mariners and buccaneers visit the islands and
take giant tortoises for food. 1996 Researchers begin unsuccessful attempts to get
Lonesome George to breed with female tortoises.
1800–1900s More sailors, whalers, and fur sealers visit the
islands, taking as many as two hundred thousand 1999 Officials launch Project Isabela to eradicate
tortoises for food. Others are killed on-site so invasive goats.
their oil can be collected and used for lamps in 2006 Project Isabela is declared a success, as all invasive
South America.
goats have been removed from Isabela.
1835 Charles Darwin visits the Galápagos Islands on 2009 The Galápagos Tortoise Movement Ecology
the HMS Beagle, a voyage that will later become Programme is launched to study tortoise migration.
famous when he writes about his theory of
evolution. 2012 Lonesome George dies without reproducing in
captivity.
1859 Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, a book
about natural selection and evolution that was 2013 The Saint Louis Zoo and National Science Foundation
inspired by his Galápagos travels. join efforts to study tortoise health with the
Galápagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme.
1900s Introduced animals such as goats spread through
the Galápagos Islands, threatening tortoise 2017 By the end of the year, more than seven thousand
habitats. tortoises raised at the Charles Darwin Research
Station have been returned to their islands or origin,
1906 What are believed to be the last three giant adding to tortoise populations on Isabela, Española,
tortoises on Pinta Island are removed and taken to Pinzón, San Cristóbal, Santiago, and Santa Cruz.
a museum.
2020 The COVID-19 pandemic shuts down all field research
1959 On the one hundredth anniversary of the in the Galápagos Islands, creating a three-month gap
publication of Darwin’s book, a major effort is in the tortoise team’s data. Tourism is also on hold,
launched to protect remaining wildlife in the and many of the islands’ thirty thousand residents
Galápagos Islands. The Galápagos National Park lose their jobs as a result. Scientists return to the field
and the Charles Darwin Foundation are established in the summer of 2020, hoping to learn how wildlife
and begin a review of tortoise populations.
has responded to this break in tourism and traffic.
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