New Galapagos giant tortoise species identified

A new giant tortoise species has been identified on the Galapagos Islands, making 11 existing species in total. It is now believed that 15 species of giant tortoise lived on Galapagos Islands, with four species extinct, leaving 11 remaining. Galapagos Islands – Insulae de los Galopegos – means Islands of the Tortoises.

A team of Ecuadoran scientists identified the new giant tortoise species after genetic testing (The Telegraph, October 22, 2015). It was originally thought that the two giant tortoise populations on the Santa Cruz island of the Galapagos Islands were the same species, but after testing, two separate species were identified.

The population of giant tortoises living on the eastern side of Santa Cruz island is a different species, said research leader Gisella Caccone from Yale University. The researchers have called the new species Chelonoidis donfaustoi – distinct from the other species, Chelonoidis nigra. The new species was named in honour of Fausto Llerena who looked after the famous Lonesome George, the last known survivor of his species. Lonesome George was a male giant tortoise from the Pinta island of the Galapagos Islands, who died in June 2012.

Ecuadoran scientist, Washington Tapia, said there are about 250-300 of the new species of giant tortoise. Research commenced in 2002 when two scientists noticed a difference in the formation of the shells of both populations of giant tortoises. They took genetic samples and in 2005 the preliminary results suggested that the eastern tortoises were a different species. It has now been confirmed.

The head of the Galapagos National Park, Alejandra Ordonez, said that research is ongoing to determine the exact distribution of the new species and their nesting areas. The Galapagos archipelago of volcanic islands is 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. In 1979 the Natural Reserve became UNESCO’s first World Heritage Site.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/galapagos/11946990/Scientists-identify-new-Galapagos-giant-tortoise-species.html

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).