GALAPAGOS ISLANDS GIANT TORTOISES

These animals live well over 100 years. However, their numbers have been greatly decreased due to the actions of man. In the 1700s and 1800s, seafarers hauled them aboard their ships because they could live for 6 months without food or water and were thus ideal for meat for the crew; over 100,000 tortoises were taken. Another problems was that introduced rats chewed on the softer shells of young tortoises and killed them. For this reason, tortoise hatchlings are kept for several years in cages at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island, until they are able to resist the rats and can be released into the wild. It is said that a tortoise head was the model for the movie character "E.T." Tortoise hatchlings protected at the Charles Darwin Research Station