- by Graham Holton
- The Guardian
- Issue #2192
The release of giant tortoises (Chelonoidis niger) back onto Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands has been a great success, restoring the landscape back to what it was before early 19th century human settlement. The tortoises of each island are identified by the unique shapes of their carapaces (shells on their back). The Iniciativa Galápagos (Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative) is led by Galápagos Conservancy and the Galápagos National Park Directorate (GNPD). The program builds upon a half-century of tortoise research and conservation carried out by the Charles Darwin Research Station, the GNPD, and numerous visiting scientists and volunteers.
The long-term goal is to restore tortoise populations across Galápagos islands and thereby restore their original vegetational coverage. The program has four main components: research and conservation on tortoises, vegetation, breeding and rearing tortoises of threatened species; repopulating islands where tortoises were extinct; and to research and manage tortoise-human interactions.
The Fausto Llerena Tortoise Centre on Santa Cruz Island was started in 1965 to save the tortoise population on Pinzón Island, which had a tortoise population of less than 200 old adults and no juveniles. The population was on the brink of extinction. On Española Island, the fourteen surviving tortoises (two males and twelve females) became part of the breeding program. A third Española male was returned to the Galapagos from the San Diego Zoo in 1976.
The first tortoises repatriated onto Española Island reached sexual maturity and began nesting in the early 1990s. The population since has been increasing naturally on the island. In 2015, the juvenile Española tortoises born in captivity were released to begin the island’s ecological restoration.
More than 7,000 juvenile tortoises were returned to their original islands of Española, Isabela, Pinzón, San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, and Santiago. By 2016 a census of San Cristóbal’s tortoise population showed a population of 6,700 tortoises, with many juveniles and ‘subadults’ (less than twenty-five years old).
Driven to extinction by the mid-1800s, the Floreana giant tortoise had not been seen on the island for generations. In 2017 a breeding program began to restore tortoises to the Island. The tortoises return signalled a major turning point for Floreana and the beginning of a new phase of rewilding under the Floreana Ecological Restoration Project. This was one of the most ambitious ecosystem recovery initiatives ever undertaken in the archipelago. In February 2026, 158 juvenile giant tortoises were released into their ancestral habitat, marking a historic milestone for ecological restoration in Galápagos, and for the Floreana community.
The community had been deeply involved in achieving this milestone, from participating in planning workshops to supporting biosecurity measures and long-term ecological monitoring. Community engagement contributed to notable conservation successes, such as the sighting of the Galápagos Rail. Locally known as the Pachay, this rare bird has not been recorded on the island since Charles Darwin’s visit in 1835.
Lorena Sánchez, Director of the Galápagos National Park said: “After several years of sustained, science-based work – requiring rigorous studies and patience to implement on an inhabited island – the return of the giant tortoises reflects a long-term restoration vision focused on progressively restoring the ecological functionality of Floreana’s ecosystems.”
The reintroduction of more than 1,500 Giant Tortoises to the Galápagos began by tearing down and eating shrubs, spreading their seeds, and restarting the destroyed ecological processes of the islands. The success of the Ecuadorian program serves as a great testament to the importance of conservation and the resilience of nature if properly respected. It also shows the importance of involving communities in ecological projects.
