After more
than a century without a single baby tortoise sighting on the Galapagos island
of Pinzón, 10 new hatchlings have been spotted.
Researcher
James Gibbs said:
I'm amazed that the tortoises gave us the opportunity to make up for our mistakes after so long. We did a survey [in December] to see if it was working for the tortoises, and we found 10 new hatchlings. This is the first time they've bred in the wild in more than a century.
The
incredible eradication of rats on this island, done by the park service and
others, has created the opportunity for the tortoises to breed for the first
time.
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.
The
Galapagos Tortoise, native to the island, currently has a population of about
19,000. This is way up from the 1960's population estimate of about 3000, but
it is still drastically lower than 16th century levels, which are estimated to
have been as high as 250,000 tortoises.
They lost
much of their population due to invasive rats, goats, and pigs. After sailors
began visiting the island in the 18th century, these animals invasively and
aggressively populated the islands.
In 2012,
biologists used helicopters to distribute poison designed to attract only rats.
It was a first-of-its-kind operation. Pinzón was declared rat-free.
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