“Don’t throw your garbage just anywhere! Take care of your environment, pick up after yourself! Trash ruins the environment and habitat of animals around us!” Our parents and teachers are always telling us to respect nature. But WHY???
What is all the fuss about, really? If I throw away just one candy wrapper or dirty tissue, is it really that big of a deal? Will killing one ladybug really change the world? If an animal is hunted a lot could it really kill off the species? Well, one wrapper, a tissue, or a dead lady bug will not lead to nature’s destruction, but you are just one person. What if when your class visits a natural place a few people littered and then few people in the next class litter and a few in the next and a few in the next, and a few in the next hundred classes it would REALLY start to make an impact! Earth Day is coming up very soon (April 22nd!) and littering reminds me of a lesson I learned while visiting the Galapagos in Ecuador.
LONESOME GEORGE OF THE GALÁPAGOS
There are so many creatures in the sea and on land that are affected by humans. Particularly the giant tortoise. Have you heard of the giant tortoise? A tortoise (see it move!) is huge. It can weigh up to 250 lbs and live up to 250 years! They are very special and found only in two places in the world: the Galápagos Islands and Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean. Sadly, at one point millions of years ago, these giants lived all over the world. So, where did they all go???
HISTORY OF TORTOISES
We don’t know for sure why giant tortoise numbers declined, but we have a few ideas. It started about 3 million years ago, at which time giant tortoises lived on every continent on the planet. One idea for their decrease in numbers is that the climate in parts of the world started cooling off, and giant tortoises couldn’t survive in the cooler climates. Tortoises survived where it is warmer, closer to the equator. Another idea for their disappearance, which is probably more realistic, has been humans. Humans hunted tortoises all around the world until they disappeared. But because humans only came to the Galápagos much later, they survived here. When humans first started coming to the Galápagos, in the 1500’s, there where 16 species of giant tortoises. Each island was home to it’s own species. The largest islands of the Galapagos have natural barriers (like volcanoes and arid zones) that allowed there to be two or three different species on one island.
Back when people started coming to the islands no one knew much about protecting environments and animal species. Once again, humans started their bad habit of killing the tortoises. Sailors ate the tortoise meat and used the tortoise’s fat reserves to make oil for lamps on their long trips around the globe. They stocked their ships with these giants by the hundreds! This led to an incredibly FAST decline in their numbers! Today only 10 species of giant tortoises are left in the Galápagos, that’s 6 less than were initially recorded.
LONESOME GEORGE OF THE GALÁPAGOS
This brings us to Lonesome George.
George was a very special tortoise. He was the last living tortoise of his species. A species is a specific family of a living thing, George’s family was the only family that lived on the small island of Pinta. Back in the 1970’s, when scientists realized that there were no other giant tortoises from Pinta, they began a worldwide search for another tortoise of his kind. Giant tortoises were a big attraction back then, many had been shipped all over the world for people to see. In their search for another Pinta Tortoise, they contacted zoos, wildlife reserves, and scientists working in areas where there are other giant tortoises, but no one had any luck in finding a relative of George’s. Without another female tortoise to mate with, and have baby tortoises with, George could not continue his species. Sadly, scientists realized that George was the last of his kind.
This created a big dilemma for conservationists. How do you prevent an animal from disappearing from our Earth if it has no one to mate with? Scientists decided to mate George with females that were similar to his species, but slightly different. Over 40 years of breeding, George had thousands of babies! It was important that he reproduce so much because the tortoise populations on all of the Galápagos islands were very low at this time. Today, the breeding program continues, but George is no longer alive.
George lived to be about 100 years old and made a huge difference to his distant relatives. Although his specific species is now extinct, he helped to repopulate the Galapagos islands and create a large enough population so that they can reproduce in the wild once again. George’s life teaches us a very important lesson. If we kill too many family members of a type of animal, we will lead them into extinction, the end of their species. Before a species goes extinct, it is endangered, or having difficulty staying alive.
TORTOISE RESEARCH TODAY
The human species is incredibly fortunate for having people that have figured out how to help the environment when it is damaged. Today tortoises are still endangered, so scientists continue breeding special species. This is a really fascinating part of science. Creating new tortoises requires that scientists mate tortoises and care for their eggs. They must make sure tortoise eggs are laid, carefully incubated until they hatch. The baby tortoises will live under supervision by the scientists for 20 years or so. Once they are big enough to survive in the wild, they are transported (sometimes by helicopter) to live in the wild.
To see how the giant tortoises are doing and where they choose to live, scientists have attached tracking devices to their shells. Scientists are learning A LOT by using these trackers. Previously no one knew exactly how these tortoises lived and where they chose to move. Today we know they move depending on the changes in season and whether it is time for them to mate.
For the most part, the Galapagos islands are dry and sparsely vegetated. The plants have interesting adaptations to survive in this dry climate. This harsh climate requires tortoises to adapt their eating habits as well. We know they eat at least 70 types of different plants, including their fruit and seeds.
Some of the seeds that tortoises eat do not get digested in their stomachs, and take up to a month to pass through their system. During this time they may move over 10km.
As a result tortoises help to spread and plant seeds through their poo! A pile of tortoise poo is as big as a human hand and it can contain thousands of seeds from many different kinds of plants!
Do you want to join in on the fun of tracking tortoises??? You can follow the movement of these huge tortoises at www.movebank.org. Thanks to the breeding program developed with Lonesome George’s help, today we are learning a lot about the habits of giant land tortoises of the Galápagos and help by removing fences. This program is a reminder that humans can have a great effect on the world. It is our job to make sure we are having the best effect possible, one that creates harmony among as many species as possible.
So maybe one giant tortoise can make a difference, just like one piece of trash can too. THINK ABOUT IT! What can you do this Earth Day, April 22nd to help avoid another species from becoming lonesome?
Thank You to the Charles Darwin Research Center for the incredible wealth of knowledge it shares with the public and the excellent photo ops of tortoises.
Tortoises are way cool.
Thanks for another great post.
Thank You for reading! Fascinating how these giants roam our earth. Strange that humans needed to kill them.
Oh, there are so many big “kids” too that need to read this. 🤭🙃
🙂 I have heard it’s a thrill for many adults, peeking in on our KIDS ONLY section 🙂