Page 5 - Tracking Tortoises: The Mission to Save a Galápagos Giant

ry to keep up with Freddy!” researcher Stephen
TBlake calls from behind as we hike along a rugged
trail toward the sandy lowlands where Galápagos giant
tortoises nest.
But Freddy Cabrera is already half a football field ahead of
us, bounding over wobbly, sharp volcanic rocks in his yellow
rubber boots. He’s been traveling this rocky, muddy path ever
since he was a kid growing up in the Santa Cruz highlands,
hunting goats with his father. Now Freddy makes the trek as
a boots-on-the-ground researcher for the Galápagos Tortoise
Movement Ecology Programme.
Today, we’re out tracking tortoises.
I’m a hiker at heart. I’ve scaled more than thirty of the
forty-six Adirondack High Peaks in New York State. But
hiking on the island of Santa Cruz is different. The mud is
red and slippery. Volcanic rocks wobble and tumble over
one another with every step. Back home, I’d reach for a
nearby tree to steady myself, but here, nearly everything
is prickly. One wrong hand placement leads to a palm full
of opuntia cactus thorns. One step off the trail and the
perfectly named cat’s claw plant rakes any bare skin like a
rambunctious kitten.
By the time we reach the lowlands, where the tortoises
nest, I’m tired, sweaty, and bleeding a little. I’ve also
acquired a whole new respect for giant tortoises. The trail Tortoises rest on a trail in the Santa Cruz highlands.
we’ve been hiking is the tortoises’ migration route. They
walk it on fat, stubby legs each year, carrying 50-pound
(23 kg) shells the whole way. migration year after year? Scientists believe the journey
It’s not easy being a giant tortoise. That’s part of the must be essential to the tortoises’ survival. So what might
reason Cabrera and Blake are so invested in this project. happen to these endangered giants if their migration were
What creature would choose to make such an exhausting no longer possible?

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