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Tortoise Conservation Plans
An Island-by-Island Summary
ISABELA – SIERRA NEGRA & CERRO AZUL VOLCANOS 
• Confusion about genetics of southern Isabela tortoises
• Survey planned focusing on distribution & genetics
• Problems with illegal poaching
• Anti-poaching workshop and actions planned
•  Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Center in Puerto Villamil
PINTA
• Pinta tortoise extinct (Lonesome George died in June 2012)
• Goats eradicated in 2003
• Pinta hybrids found on Wolf Volcano in 2008
• 39 sterilized hybrids released on Pinta in 2010
• Breeding program using Pinta hybrids to begin in 2014
• Expected release of first juveniles in 2019/20
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ESPAÑOLA
• 15 native adults in tortoise center on Santa Cruz
• Nearly 2,000 tortoises repatriated
• Natural reproduction of repatriates began in early 1990s
• Island survey conducted in 2010
• Tortoise-cactus-woody vegetation study planned
FERNANDINA
• Fernandina tortoise extinct
• Single Fernandina tortoise collected in 1906
• Search expedition planned – waiting for funding
FLOREANA
• Floreana tortoise extinct since 1850s
• Floreana hybrids found on Wolf Volcano in 2008
• Breeding program using Floreana hybrids to begin in 2014
• Expected release of first juveniles in 2019/20
ISABELA – WOLF VOLCANO 
• 2008 survey of more than 1,600 tortoises (DNA analysis)
• 17 Pinta hybrids found (possibly 70–80 present) • 84 Floreana hybrids found (possibly 250–280 present)
• Other non-Wolf hybrids – potentially 470–560
• Series of hybrid recovery expeditions planned
ISABELA – DARWIN VOLCANO 
• Tortoise population not well known
• Limited habitat because of extensive lava flows
• To be included in the rearing center at Puerto Villamil
ISABELA – ALCEDO VOLCANO 
• Project Isabela eliminated goats and donkeys in 2006
• Vegetation recovering and tortoise population is healthy
• Needs ongoing monitoring of vegetation recovery
GIANT TORTOISE
PINZÓN
• Native population of ~100 tortoises
• More than 650 tortoises have been repatriated
• Natural reproduction of repatriates since 1990s
• Rat eradication campaign in 2012
• Good outlook for tortoise population
RESTORATION INITIATIVE
2014-2018
© Mary Traveland
SAN CRISTÓBAL
• Distribution of tortoises not well known
• Survey planned focusing on distribution & genetics
•  Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Center
F
or more than one million years, Giant Tortoises have played a natural and essential role as ecosystem
engineers in the Galapagos Islands, helping to shape the landscape for the islands’ other extraordinary
creatures and plantlife. As many as 200,000 Giant Tortoises once roamed the islands, but only 20,000
(or just 10–20% of the original population) remain today. Their dramatic decline was mainly due to
overexploitation by whalers and, more recently, predation and habitat destruction from invasive species like
rats and goats. In addition to their crucial ecological role, Giant Tortoises also play an important economic
role as one of the Galapagos Islands’ greatest eco-tourism attractions.
SANTA CRUZ
• Two populations: Tortoise Reserve and Cerro Fatal
• Cerro Fatal population is very small — in rearing program
• Migration studies being conducted
•  Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Center – many populations
SANTA FE
• Santa Fe tortoise extinct for ~150 years
• ~7,000 land iguanas, ~170,000 adult Opuntia cacti
• Expected release of analog tortoise species soon
IN BRIEF
Between 2014 and 2018, Galapagos
Conservancy will invest more than
$1,000,000 in Giant Tortoise
conservation efforts in the Galapagos
Islands. These efforts seek to reverse
some of the damage caused by
humans going back as far as the 16th
century.
SANTIAGO
• Project Isabela eliminated goats, pigs, and donkeys
• Vegetation recovering
• Tortoise population still skewed towards males
• Monitoring of on-island reproduction needed
• May still need to be included in rearing center
A few residents of the
Tortoise Center on Santa
Cruz Island await their
next meal on the feeding
platform.
The three Tortoise Breeding
and Rearing Centers play
a crucial role in helping
tortoise populations
rebound in Galapagos.
GALAPAGOS CONSERVANCY
11150 Fairfax Boulevard, Suite 408 w Fairfax, VA 22030 USA w [email protected] w www.galapagos.org
Program Contact: DR. LINDA CAYOT, GC Science Advisor, [email protected]
© Leslie Lenny
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THE EXPERTS
Galapagos Conservancy’s Giant
Tortoise Restoration Initiative
will require collaboration from
many experts:
A team of international giant
tortoise experts from universities,
zoos, and other institutions from
around the world will collaborate in
the planning and execution of each
phase of the project.
Left: One of the Pinta tortoise hybrids found on Wolf Volcano
Giant Tortoises perform many critical
(P. Pritchard). Right: A young tortoise raised at the tortoise
roles in shaping healthy ecosystems,
breeding center (B. Schoeberl).
such as dispersing seeds of native
The Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) will
plants and creating open pathways where other animals and
provide the technical expertise and infrastructure needed to
plants can thrive. By restoring Giant Tortoise populations
carry out the work.
throughout the islands, ecosystems will return to a more
balanced state as a result of the many beneficial actions of
Galapagos Conservancy’s Science Advisor, Dr.
these apex herbivores.
Linda Cayot, who has spent several decades working on
behalf of Galapagos tortoise conservation, will continue to
On many of the Galapagos Islands, the recent eradication
play a leading role in this work. After completing her PhD on
of harmful introduced species (like goats and rats) that
the ecology of the giant tortoises of Santa Cruz and Pinzón
once posed serious threats to tortoises makes this long-term
Islands, Linda supervised the tortoise breeding and rearing
tortoise restoration project both timely and feasible.
center (including the care of Lonesome George) and much
of the tortoise field work from 1988–1997. She played
Kicked off with a planning workshop in July 2012 and
a major role in planning Project Pinta and organized the
building on decades of tortoise research and management,
tortoise workshop in July 2012, at which the next 10 years
the first five years of the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative
of the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative were developed.
will focus on 8 distinct goals outlined on the following pages.
RESTORING THE GIANT TORTOISE DYNASTY IN GALAPAGOS
CONSERVATION HISTORY
The next 5 years in Galapagos tortoise
conservation will build on decades of tortoise
research and management investments made
by Galapagos Conservancy and our partner
organizations in the Islands. Below are notable
events and accomplishments:
1965 – PRESENT
The world-class tortoise breeding and repatriation program
of the Galapagos National Park Service and the Charles
Darwin Foundation was established in 1965. Since then,
more than 4,000 young tortoises have been repatriated to
their islands of origin as a result of this program.
1972 – 2012
Lonesome George, the last Pinta
Island tortoise, was discovered and
taken into captivity where he lived out
his life as a conservation icon at the
tortoise center on Santa Cruz Island.
He passed away in June 2012 at an
estimated 100 years old.
1997 – 2006
Lonesome George
Early 1900s to 2012
Project Isabela, the largest ecosystem restoration initiative
ever carried out in a protected area, successfully eliminated
introduced goats — one of the biggest threats to giant
tortoises — from northern Isabela, Santiago, and Pinta Islands.
2008 – 2012
Genetic testing of more than 1,600 tortoises on Wolf Volcano
identified tortoises with partial ancestry from Floreana (extinct
on Floreana since the 1850s) and Pinta (considered extinct
following the death of Lonesome George).
2009 – PRESENT
A number of advances have been made in the understanding
of tortoise movement ecology and the technology to study it.
2010
Tortoises were returned to Pinta Island. 39 sterilized hybrid
adult tortoises were released and are now thriving and
exerting a significant ecological impact on the island.
2010 – 2011
A major survey of tortoises, cacti, and woody vegetation was
conducted on Española Island and a similar survey was done
on vegetation and land iguanas on Santa Fe.
JULY 2012
An international workshop, Giant Tortoise Recovery
through Integrated Research and Management, was held in
Galapagos. It resulted in the strategic and operational plans to
guide the next decade of tortoise research and management.
GALAPAGOS CONSERVANCY WILL INVEST $1,310,000 OVER 5 YEARS
Tortoise team staff
Research on tortoise-cactus-woody plant
interactions
To ensure that the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative is
successful, a small team of competent researchers must be
established to oversee the effort and to coordinate all activities
with the GNPS and others. This will include a part-time
supervisory and planning position at GC (Dr. Linda Cayot)
and the leader of the Initiative in Galapagos with a staff of two
assistants.
Total funding needed: $550,000
$50,000 for 2014 and $125,000 per year for 2015 –2018
Expeditions to Wolf Volcano
Beginning in December 2013, GC will help support a series
of expeditions over the next 3-5 years using genetic analysis
to identify tortoises of high conservation value (tortoises with
partial or pure Floreana and Pinta ancestry) and to initiate
breeding programs. These expeditions will include searches
in previously unexplored areas. During each expedition,
potentially as many as 100 tortoises (known Pinta/Floreana
tortoises, as well as un-sampled tortoises with similar
morphology) will be transported by helicopter to a holding
pen near the northern Isabela coast, where blood samples will
be taken from all animals for DNA analysis at Yale University.
Tortoises to be transported off Wolf Volcano will remain in
quarantine before being transported to other islands. Those
with sufficient Pinta and Floreana ancestry will be moved to the
tortoise breeding center on Santa Cruz Island.
Total funding needed: $150,000
$50,000/year for the next three years for personnel,
equipment, travel and field logistics
Return Giant Tortoises to Santa Fe
It is well documented that tortoises once lived on Santa Fe,
but, unfortunately, the species has been extinct for more
than 150 years. While other populations have been of higher
conservation priority to date, we must now focus on the overall
restoration of Santa Fe, wich includes the return of tortoises.
An analog species will be used in place of the original species.
Scientists are currently reviewing which species will best fill this
role. Careful monitoring of the return of tortoises on this island,
which is relatively pristine, could provide key information
about how tortoises repopulate an island and their effects on the
ecosystem.
Total funding needed: $75,000
$25,000 per year for three years beginning in 2015
for field trips and monitoring
A survey of tortoises, cactus, and woody plants was carried out
on Española in 2010, but a larger, archipelago-wide research
project is needed to determine the interactions among these
groups. Of particular importance is the status of cactus
populations on different islands due to impacts of introduced
species. A critical resource for tortoises on the arid islands,
cactus is a lynchpin for tortoise restoration. As the decades
go by and tortoise numbers increase to historical numbers
(100,000–200,000), we need to have a clearer understanding
of their relationship to their environment, the potential of
the habitat to support large tortoise populations, and the
importance of habitat management as a tortoise restoration tool.
© GNPS
TIMELINE OF TORTOISE
Park rangers mark tortoises on Wolf Volcano during a 2009 expedition.
Breeding program for Pinta and Floreana
tortoises
Over the next few years the GNPS will require additional
technical assistance to expand the tortoise breeding center on
Santa Cruz Island (and potentially other islands) to provide
adequate room for the new breeding populations of Pinta
and Floreana tortoises. If all goes as planned, the first young
tortoises will hatch in 2015 and the first repatriation will take
place in 2019 or 2020.
Total funding needed: $75,000
$25,000 per year for the next three years for technical
assistance and to help support the expansion of the center(s)
Rapid increase in the number of adult
tortoises on Pinta Island
The tortoise breeding program will eventually produce young
Floreana and Pinta tortoises for repatriation. However, with
the recent eradication of goats, Pinta Island is in urgent need
of additional adult tortoises to serve as ecological engineers
to help in a more natural restoration of the plant community.
Expanding on the highly successful 2010 release of 39 sterilized
adult hybrid tortoises on Pinta, additional hybrid tortoises
(without Pinta or Floreana ancestry) collected on Wolf Volcano
will be sterilized and relocated to Pinta. These animals will act
as “ecological management tools,” conditioning the habitat for
juvenile Pinta tortoises. The hybrid tortoises will be monitored
to learn as much as possible before the release of juvenile Pinta
tortoises in 2019/20.
Total funding needed: $120,000
$40,000/year for three years beginning in 2014
for personnel, logistics, and monitoring
Total funding needed: $120,000
$30,000 per year for four years beginning in 2014
for personnel, field work, and data analysis
Population surveys and advanced genetic
sampling in Southern Isabela, San
Cristóbal, and Santiago Islands
During the recent tortoise workshop (July 2012), Galapagos
National Park personnel and international experts identified
several tortoise populations in which the genetic relationships
among tortoises are not well understood. In some cases, certain
tortoise populations should be classified as two or more distinct
species. There are also major gaps in knowledge regarding
tortoise distribution. For example, much of the tortoise habitat
on San Cristóbal Island has never been comprehensively
surveyed. Tracking tortoise movements with cutting-edge GPS
technology can help resolve some of these unknowns.
Total funding needed: $120,000
$30,000 per year for four years beginning in 2014
for field trips and logistics
Anti-poaching workshop and follow-up
Giant tortoises were a traditional part of the diet of settlers in
Galapagos. When the GNPS was established in 1959, efforts
to curb the hunting of tortoises were generally successful.
However, killing tortoises underwent a resurgence in the
1990s and has become a serious concern on southern Isabela.
A focused workshop, involving a small group of international
experts and GNPS personnel, will be held to develop a series
of strategies to combat the problem, including education,
community outreach, and enforcement action.
Total funding needed: $100,000
$25,000 per year for four years beginning in 2014