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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBaby Tortoises Found On Galapagos Island For First Time In Over 100 Years
After more than a century without a single baby tortoise sighting on the Galapagos island of Pinzón, a small group of the tiny, shelled youngsters have been spotted again.
The recent births are helping to pull the critically endangered animals back from the brink of extinction after they were nearly laid to waste as a result of human activity.
"I'm amazed that the tortoises gave us the opportunity to make up for our mistakes after so long," researcher James Gibbs who was among the first to see the hatchlings in December, told The Dodo.
When sailors first landed on Pinzón Island in the mid-18th century, they inadvertently triggered an environmental catastrophe that has taken generations to correct. Rats aboard those early vessels quickly gained a foothold in the fragile ecosystem, feasting on the eggs and hatchlings of the island's tortoises who, up until then, had few natural predators.
The rats were so devastating, in fact, that over the following decades not a single tortoise offspring survived the onslaught setting the species on the path to extinction.
But just as human activity nearly spelled doom for the imperiled animals, it has also helped to save them.
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https://www.thedodo.com/galapagos-tortoises-spotted-945526940.html
Cool!
betsuni
(25,537 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Species evolve to a habitat with specific predators in place. When a new species is introduced it destroys the delicate balance. This is especially true on a unique island habitat. It isn't as if the tortoises can get up and leave.
Introduced goats have done similar damage to the Galapagos.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Freaking conservatives...
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)listen to the "conservative" rhetoric on climate change it boggles the mind. Some of them are just incredibly ignorant. But most of them know better. They are feathering their nest with bribes from the fossil fuel industry.
Rhinodawg
(2,219 posts)JHB
(37,160 posts)(Yeah, I know, it's the legs, but but what it looks like is...)
narnian60
(3,510 posts)There's something about turtles and tortoises that touches my heart.
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)Super interesting: http://www.radiolab.org/story/galapagos/