Santa Cruz and the Galapagos Giant Tortoises

The fastest recorded speed of a giant tortoise is about 1500 feet (about 460 meters) an hour.  That’s barely over a quarter mile.  In an hour.   Lately it seems that my blog posts are appearing at about the same speed.  I apologize. I won’t bore you with the ‘why’, I will just promise that posts will be more regular..

Galapagos Islands map from researchgate.net

There are twenty-one Galapagos islands, but only five of them have a human residential population.  This restriction protects the islands and their natural inhabitants.  Our next stop is Santa Cruz, one of the five human-populated islands.

In addition to people, the island also has a camp site. After our visit to Bartolome', we go to the Itabaca Canal on the north shore of Santa Cruz, disembark, and then are driven to the campground.  

Santa Cruz map from Sustany.org

On planning this trip, my first thought at the word ‘camping’ was memory of the times (long ago) when I took my sleeping bag, slept in a tent, cooked over a fire, and really did ‘rough it’.  I was not good at it.

   My first night ever in a tent, the rain was torrential.  As I lay in my sleeping bag, I   
   marveled that the rain didn’t ‘penetrate’ the tent.  I cautiously ran my finger along 
   the tent section over my head, amazed that it was dry.  Anyone who knows anything 
   about tents knows what happened next.  By running my hand along the tent fabric, I  
   had broken the ‘air seal’.  Now the rain dripped steadily onto my head for the rest of 
   the night.  I learned.  Please stop laughing.

The Natural Habitat camping opportunity on Santa Cruz is very different from my 'roughing it' experience.

On the north shore of the island, the forest is rich and dense; from some areas of the camp, we see the ocean in the distance. Each tent is on a raised platform. Each has beds, electricity, a sink, shower and a flush toilet is just a few steps away. A few of the tents are like ‘tree houses.  Definitely not roughing it. 

my 'tent'

"Tree house" sleeping quarters

We have a little time before dinner so we can meet some of our hosts—our giant tortoise hosts. 

The photographer above is a normal-size adult photographing a normal-size giant tortoise.

‘Giant’ is not an exaggeration. It’s likely that tortoises arrived on the islands from South America over two million years ago.  They survived and evolved. The males can weigh as much as 500 pounds (over 225 kg); females average about 250 pounds.  
 
The islands are home to two kinds of tortoises – those with large round shells (domes) like the ones I see in the camp site and slightly smaller ones with shells that curve upward—saddleback tortoises. The saddlebacks have evolved so they can extend their heads to reach for higher food.  

Tortoises can go for up to a year without food or water. That’s a great adaptation except for one thing: sailors passing through the islands on exploratory voyages were always in need of food.  Here's a great food source:  an animal that 
 - can’t move when it’s on its back in the ship’s hold, 
 - doesn’t need food for a year
 - doesn't need water for year
 - also provides oil (like whale oil) that makes good lamp fuel.

A few hundred years of human predation and the arrival of species like pigs and goats that ate the same foods as the tortoises led to the loss of about 200,000 of them.  Four species are now extinct.  The last of the Pinta tortoises—Lonesome George, over 100 years old—died in 2012 in his shelter on Santa Cruz.  

#     #     #

  Next: Santa Cruz Giant Tortoises (continued)