Bringing back Galapagos’ giant tortoises
Bringing back Galapagos’ giant tortoises
Hybrids being used to revive species once believed to be extinct
AFP
Published: 13:02 June 17, 2013
Puerto Ayora, Ecuador: Scientists will try to revive two species of giant Galapagos tortoises thought to have been extinct by breeding genetic relatives in captivity, experts leading the effort said.
The Galapagos Islands, located 1,000 kilometres off Ecuador’s Pacific coast, are famed for the large number of species that have developed there in isolation.
New research techniques have revealed that at Wolf volcano on Isabela Island, 17 hybrid giant tortoises have been found with genes from the extinct Pinta Island tortoise, and about 280 hybrids have been found with genes from the extinct Floreana Island tortoise.
Among those with Pinta genes, at least one pair has 80 per cent of the original species’ genes, while among the Floreana hybrids, many have up to 90 per cent of the original species genes.
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