The giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands have benefited from the captive breeding program initiated at the Charles Darwin Researched Station. The tortoises are released when large enough to defend themselves against predators.

When the Galapagos were discovered by Spanish explorers in 1535, hundreds of thousands of giant tortoises roamed the islands. (Galapago is the Spanish word for tortoise.) Survivors of prehistoric times when reptiles were of enormous size, some of the tortoises grow to four feet in length and weigh as much as 500 pounds. They may live for more than a century.

Tortoises from Pinzon and Hood islands are breeding, but there is only one of the Pinta island tortoise species left, and that’s why he is called Lonesome George. Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by MrGhaz.

Scientists have successfully reintroduced giant tortoises to a Galápagos island where the species once teetered on extinction, raising conservation hopes for the rest of the archipelago.A survey of Española, the southernmost island, confirmed last week that a pioneering effort to repatriate giant tortoise hatchlings has produced a thriving, reproducing population of more than 1,500 specimens. The project aims to turn the clock back to before human beings all but wiped out a species that helped to inspire Charles Darwin’s theories on evolution and natural selection. “It’s a great end to a sad story,” said Johannah Barry, president of Galápagos Conservancy, a Virginia-based organisation which partly funded the study.

There were hopes that Pinta Island could be similarly repopulated but Lonesome George, the only surviving Pinta Tortoise, has so far failed to produce offspring. Scientists are now introducing the Pinta’s close relation, the Espanola tortoise to that island.

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It may have taken the best part of a century but scientists are hoping that Lonesome George, the last remaining example of the Galapagos Pinta Tortoise (featured previously at Neatorama) will finally become a father later this year.  Eggs have been discovered in his enclosure and rushed to an incubator for special attention.

This follows a false start last year when over a dozen eggs were laid but all sadly turned out to be infertile. However, that in itself was a breakthrough – before that George hadn’t seemed in any great hurry to do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel at all.

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From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.

… scientists have discovered that the "rosada" – or pink – iguana is a species in its own right after comparing its genes with other land iguanas on the Galapagos.

There were also physical differences, besides the striking pink and black-striped colouring. Pink iguanas had flat head scales, unlike other land iguanas, and a thick fatty crest on the back of the neck with small conical scales.

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