Galapagos Giant Tortoises [Kõva köide]

"I want to emphasize that this book is not just for Galįpagos giant tortoise enthusiasts. It also highlights the many lessons that have been learned from restoration of Galįpagos ecosystems. I teach an undergraduate course on conservation biology and always include a discussion of ecological substitutes” as a means or restoring lost ecological functions. The comprehensive list of tortoise rewilding efforts around the globe (Chapter 2) will definitely be incorporated into my discussion of this topic the next time I give the course. My course similarly includes a unit on eradication of invasive species, and the eradications successfully completed in the Galįpagos (Chapter 19) are certainly a guide for future eradication attempts around the globe. I was particularly interested in the rat eradication carried out on Pinzón Island (Chapter 22) and the immediate benefits detected for not only Galįpagos giant tortoises, but also land snails, lava lizards, Galįpagos snakes, cactus finches, and Galįpagos rails.

This leads to my final point about the books inspiring accounts of individual tortoises. Although we are all aware of the incredible longevity of giant tortoises, the stories in this volume brought it home to me in a way I had not experienced before. I was particularly moved by the story of Diego (Chapter 21), the Espańola giant tortoise who was collected from his home island in 1934, spent 43 years at the San Diego Zoo, was then transferred to the Tortoise Breeding Center to participate in the captive breeding program for another 43 years, before being returned to his home island in 2020. It is incredible to think of any living organism having witnessed so much change, but the authors of this volume calculate that 2% of Galįpagos giant tortoises alive today would have been present when Darwin visited the islands in 1834. It is only due to their extreme longevity that the tortoises were able to persist through centuries of human exploitation and invasive species (e.g., there was no natural tortoise recruitment on Pinzón for over a century). I commend the authors for composing engaging chapters across the board and the editors for forming them into a cohesive volume." --The Quarterly Review of Biology