Galapogos Islands- Marvel at the Giant Tortoises

There are about 17,000 tortoises in the Galapagos today but previously there were 200,000. They live to over 100 years! The males can weigh up to 270kg with a carved shell length of 1.2m. The females are about 1/3 of the size. There are 2 types: a saddleback from arid habitats and dome shaped from areas of lush vegetation. These ones are dome shaped. The males are double the height of the females. They are vegetarians and feed on 50 different types of plant species. They live in the forests and are the size of a kitchen table. Nesting - Females lay 3 nests of 20 eggs per year. They travel from the highlands to the coast to lay there eggs. The journey takes many weeks. They regulate their body temperature by moving in and out of the mud.

When frightened, the tortoise will hiss caused by the sudden retraction of its head and limbs into the shell. They are quite shy.

Sailors favourite food - as you can imagine sailing in the olden days was difficult and finding protein to eat was difficult. So they sent the sailors to the islands to get tortoises to eat. As the females were smaller and closer to the shore they were taken and this is why they were almost wiped out as a species. Sadly, they were turned upside down on the boats and kept alive due to their slow metabolisms. They could survive upside down for up to 1 year. Later on the sailors placed goats, dokneys and pigs which then competed with them for food which also affected their numbers.