OkcPets Magazine March 2022

22 OKC Pets • March/April 2022 doran government and world are working to save this Eden-like area. Of the islands in the Galápagos archi- pelago, the most explored are the 13 larger islands, and only four are populated by people. The largest of the Galápagos Islands is Isabela, four times the size of the sec- ond-largest island, Santa Cruz, and home to a large population of Galápagos tortoises. However, my first exposure to the Galápagos tortoise was at Cerro Colorado Tortoise Reserve on San Cristóbal Island. The reserve works to boost the numbers of these giant reptiles and save them from extinction through a breeding program. Tortoises roam in conditions similar to their natural habitat and thrive in the 15- acre forest, which is also home to dozens of other endemic species. Cerro Colorado, the only site where giant tortoises of San Cristóbal live in semicaptivity in a reintroduction project, uses natural breed- ing methods despite having incubators for eggs. Frankly, they don’t need to use them; the tortoises breed quite well on their own. The purpose of the breeding center is to increase the survival rate of new hatch- lings in the wild. Hatchlings are kept at the center for the first few years of life to protect them from predators before their reintroduction to the wild. Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island is home to the Charles Darwin Research Station, where more than 200 scientists and volunteers work to conserve the wild- life of the Galápagos Islands. The research station also has a robust breeding program for Galápagos tortoises, and it reaches out with conservation efforts and research throughout the Galápagos archipelago. The research station is part of the Galápagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Program (GTMEP), which studies both the movement ecology and the health of these giants. GTMEP is a multi-institu- tional collaboration among the Charles Darwin Foundation, the Galápagos National Park Directorate, and the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Med- icine. Prior to the founding of GTMEP in 2009, very little was known about tortoise migrations, health, and diseases and the threats they face from human activities. “Here we’re going to find different species of giant tortoises — some from the island of Santa Cruz, some from the island of Santiago, some from the island of Es- pañola, some from the island of Floreana,” said Galápagos National Park naturalist David Guzmán, who was our tour guide on Hurtigruten Expeditions’ inaugural Galápagos cruise. “The park rangers go to find the nest, they take out the eggs, and they bring them here to be incubated from the different islands. After they are incubat- ed, the hatchlings stay in these training grounds for their first years of life before they’re transported back to their islands of origin,” Guzmán said. “The idea is to not make them dependent on humans because at some certain point, these tortoises here at the Darwin Center have to be released in the wild, even the ones that are being reproduced in captivity.” One of the species the center breeds is the Floreana giant tortoise, which was believed to have become extinct in the 1800s because of overhunting by sailors and whalers. Perhaps the most famous of the Galápa- gos giant tortoises was Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta Island tortoises. They were thought to have been extinct, but a scientist spotted the lonesome male. In 1972, Galápagos National Park rangers brought Lonesome George to the Charles Darwin Research Station with the hope that a female Pinta tortoise would eventu- ally be found. However, no females were discovered, and Lonesome George died on June 24, 2012, effectively ending the existence of the Pinta Island tortoise. In the highlands of Santa Cruz Island, our Hurtigruten group visited former ranches such as Rancho El Manzanillo. Once a farm, it is now a tortoise ranch where tourists can tour the grounds with a naturalist guide to see tortoises in their natural habitat. Tortoise or Turtle? So in case you are wondering, what’s the difference between tortoises and turtles? Are the names interchangeable or are there real differences in the two reptiles? According to Encyclopedia Britannica , all tortoises are turtles, but not all tur- tles are tortoises. The biggest definer is that tortoises spend most of their time on land, and turtles spend most of their time in the water. There are other notable differenc- es between the two. Tortoises are herbivores, whereas turtles are mostly omnivores, eating plants and other an- imals. Tortoises have sturdier forelimbs that are not webbed, but turtles have webbed, flipperlike forearms to help them navigate through water. Although tortoises and turtles both fall under the order of Testudines — animals with four limbs {tetrapods) that have a protective shell on their bodies — these two creatures are unique enough to earn separate names. Galápagos giant tortoises cool off in a pool of water at El Manzanillo Ranch in the Galápagos Islands, a former farm that is now a reserve where tortoises roam free.