I was very excited by the news this week that for the first time in more than a century, baby tortoises have been found on the Galapagos Islands!
These incredibly fascinating, beautiful, massive old creatures used to inhabit the islands in the hundreds of thousands. They were also one of the key creatures that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Years of pirates, whalers and rats eating all the eggs cut down the population to almost nothing.
But miraculously (and following a very large, long term rat-poisoning project,) researchers have reported sightings of ten newly hatched saddleback giant tortoises on Pinzón Island! The news was reported in Nature back in January.
Squee!
In celebration of this wonderful event, I have created a little playlist of slow jams and tortoise-themed babymakin’ music. These tortoises can finally breed again, so it’s our job to get them in the mood….