In the 1960s, the Espanola Galapagos tortoise was in pretty tough shape. There were only 15 individuals remaining – 12 females and 3 males. But fortunately, that was the animal’s low point. 50 years of dedicated conservation effort has brought the population of the tortoise up to 1,000 individuals! More importantly, their recovery is stable, and it looks to be on its way up.
In 1973, the Galapagos Islands National Park Service started a captive breeding and reintroduction program for the giant tortoises. Through this program, they have been able to breed and release 1500 of the captivity raised tortoises back onto the island of Espanola. Unfortunately, the non-native goat populations on the island had to be culled.
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