Why Save the Galapagos Tortoise?
The word Galapagos is Spanish for saddle. The islands were named for a particular variety of Galapagos tortoise known as the saddleback. These tortoises inhabit the drier islands and feed primarily on many varieties of prickly pear cactus. The saddle refers to a striking feature of their shell that forms a large space just above the neck that allows the tortoise to reach high to grab a succulent piece of cactus. Since the islands were named for the saddleback tortoise they are a symbol of the islands. As I mentioned earlier, these tortoises are the largest living reptiles. They are also the longest living animals in the world. There is a female Galapagos tortoise in a zoo in Australia by the name of Harriet. Harriet was reportedly taken from the Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin himself. She eventually was taken to Australia and is reported to be 173 years old, born around 1830. This would make her the oldest living creature on earth. Harriet is a dome tortoise as opposed to the sadd
The word Galapagos stands for Tortoise in Spanish. Galapagos is famous for the natural beauty the variety of animals and the Giant tortoises. The tortoise at Galapagos are the largest among all. They have special importance in Biology too as the famus naturalist Charles Darwin discover the Theory Of Evolution by studying the Galapagos Tortoises. But due to hunting and destroyed habitat the populatin of tortoises has reduced spontaneously over the last few decades. About 100 years ago there were around 200000 tortoise but now the number has reduced to few thousands.
Although the population of the Giant tortoise at Galapagos is reducing continuously, however, years of research, performed by the scientists, has found a trace of considerable number of hybrid tortoises in the different Islands and there have been numerous attempts to find mark their locations and numbers so that they could be monitored after analysis. Galapagos Conservancy has took many steps towards increasing the population of tortoise. Study has found that main reason behind the reducing population was hunting by the local residents and sailors that traveled by had a habit of taking hundreds of these tortoises along with them. Different laws are created in order to ristrict such activities and to increase the population of the tortoise so that we can ristrist the extinction of this wonderful creture.
