alex51324:

nitrosplicer:

Guys they reintroduced Galapagos tortoises to espanola island and they’ve essentially terraformed their environment, knocking over invasive plants so that endangered albatrosses (who need space to take off using the ground as a runway) have returned and established nests!

Galapagos giant tortoises are restoring their own ecosystem

A decades-long project to reintroduce Galapagos giant tortoises is changing the face of the island of Española.

Popular Science

https://www.popsci.com/environment/galapagos-giant-tortoises-ecosystem-conservation/

Some key details from the articles:

• In the 1960’s, the tortoise population on this particular island–Española–was down to 14 tortoises.
• Those individuals–two males and twelve females–were taken to a sanctuary on the nearby island of Santa Cruz, where they were encouraged to be fruitful and multiply.
• Another male tortoise living in a zoo was identified as being from this island, and joined the group at the sanctuary, increasing the diversity of the gene pool.
• Because Galapagos tortoises live so long–over a century–the reintroduction involved not only the offspring born at the sanctuary, but also the original 14 tortoises, and the guy from the zoo. After half a century, they took their children and grandchildren home.

Also,

• “Galapagos giant tortoises spend about 16 hours per day resting and the remaining hours snacking on grasses, fruits and cactus pads.” Mood.

The reintroduction project for Española is now in its end stage, with all the tortoises back on their home island, free-roaming and reproducing on the their own. (The total population is about 3,000). However, the sanctuary continues to work with tortoises from other islands (because of their isolation, each island’s population is its own subspecies).