The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : For the First Time in 100 Years, Baby Pinzón Giant Tortoises Have Hatched on the Galapagos Islands The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : For the First Time in 100 Years, Baby Pinzón Giant Tortoises Have Hatched on the Galapagos Islands

Saturday, April 25, 2015

For the First Time in 100 Years, Baby Pinzón Giant Tortoises Have Hatched on the Galapagos Islands


For the first time in 100 years, baby Pinzón giant tortoises have hatched on the Galapagos Islands. Their births represent a small step forward for the vulnerable species.

On an expedition to Pinzón Island in 1970, scientists found only 19 adult tortoises. Conservationists transferred those tortoises to Santa Cruz Island, where they began a captive breeding program, before returning the young tortoises back to Pinzón Island.

Forty-four years after the expedition, a group of conservationists discovered six young Pinzón hatchlings on Pinzón Island in December.

Dr. James Gibbs, one of the conservationists who visited Pinzón in December, tells Mashable: "This discovery is testament to the dedication and hard work of the Galapagos National Park Service over the last 40 years in rescuing several tortoise species from the point of extinction and putting them back on the path to a strong, albeit slow but steady, recovery."

Danny Rueda, who manages conservation and restoration of ecosystems in the Galapagos, told the Associated Press that there are currently 650 juvenile and adult tortoises on the island.

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