Sterilising giant tortoises and setting them free on a precious eco-site may not sound like the ideal way to restore a Galapagos island to its former glory. But it's one that seems to be working on Pinta Island, the original home of famous giant tortoise "Lonesome George".
Conservationists freed 39 sterile tortoises on Pinta last May in the hope that they would regulate the native vegetation, which has returned with a vengeance ever since invasive goats were eradicated in 2003. The hope is that the tortoises will create clearings where native sun-loving plants can thrive. They had to be sterilised to ensure they wouldn't colonise the island, leaving it free for subsequent recolonisation with the Española tortoises most closely related to Lonesome George.
Vets this week described how they sterilised the 14 female tortoises sent to the island by removing their ovaries (The Veterinary Record, DOI: 10.1136/vr.c6520). The 25 males were sterilised by removing their phalluses, which are only used for mating.
The latest news from the island is that the tortoises were quick off the mark. "They immediately began eating the herbaceous plants, and the effects of their trampling have also been dramatic," James Gibbs, head of Project Pinta, told New Scientist. "They've had a big impact in a very short time." Gibbs and his colleagues will return to Pinta in May.
A Little Bit Of Information About Galapagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands (official name: Archipiélago de Colón; other Spanish names: Islas de Colón or Islas Galápagos) are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km (525 nmi) west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part. Wildlife is its most notable feature.
The Galápagos islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a biological marine reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of around 23,000.
The islands are geologically young and famed for their vast number of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.
The first crude navigation chart of the islands was done by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley in 1684. He named the individual islands after some of his fellow pirates or after the English noblemen who helped the privateer's cause. More recently, the Ecuadorian government gave most of the islands Spanish names. While the Spanish names are official, many users (especially ecological researchers) continue to use the older English names, particularly as those were the names used when Charles Darwin visited.
The final Curious © phrase:
“We called him Tortoise because he taught us”
(Lewis Carroll)
