What happened to a hundred-year-old turtle that had 800 children with hundreds of female turtles? Obviously, this is not a normal breeding phenomenon, this is the response that humans have come up with in order to increase the number of this species, and it has indeed worked.
Centenarian turtle
Aren't turtles very adaptable? How can it be endangered? What did they go through? How was this century-old turtle chosen?
Species of centuries-old turtles
Many species on Earth are facing extinction, and although most animal extinctions are directly related to humans, it is fortunate that humans are now paying for their previous actions. The century-old turtle to be said this time has also been listed in the list of critically endangered animals, the old turtle belongs to the species called galapagos tortoise, they eat cactus as the main food, but also eat leaves, moss and other plants, is the world's largest tortoise, an adult tortoise weighs about 300 pounds.
Galapagos tortoises
In order to maintain the body's energy needs, they usually consume an average of about 36 kilograms of food per day, and they store the ingested plant water on the "water bag" on their bladder or neck, which greatly enhances their adaptability, even in the harsh environment without food and water, they can survive for 18 months.
Like other turtles, the Galapagos tortoise has a long lifespan, generally more than 100 years, and the tortoise mating is very frequent after sexual maturity. Logically, under these conditions, galapagos tortoises should grow steadily, so why did they become critically endangered animals?
Galapagos tortoise about to mate
Causes of the endangerment of Galapagos tortoises
As mentioned earlier, almost all species extinctions on Earth are related to human behavior, as are the endangered Galapagos tortoises.
In the 16th century, mankind entered the age of great navigation, and these invaders not only plundered the resources and manpower of the indigenous people, but also the animals on the island. They entered the area where galapagos tortoises lived and found that the species had a lot of flesh and two water bags on them, which was a great "gift" for people sailing on the ocean.
The Age of Discovery
And the Galapagos tortoises are slow and incompressive, making it easy for the crew to catch them. So they hunted Galapagos tortoises and carried them to the ships to solve the crew's food and drinking problems. Because the Galapagos tortoise has a strong ability to survive, the crew can finally "enjoy" the live turtle meat even if they leave it in the cabin for several months. Even the famous biologist Darwin ate the meat of this species and thought it tasted good.
Darwin
Although galapagos tortoises have a long lifespan and strong reproductive ability, they can withstand the wild hunting of humans, so when humans began to realize the serious survival of the species, their number was less than 15,000.
To this end, the Charles Darwin Foundation was established, and biologists are actively exploring how to restore the Galapagos tortoise population and protect biodiversity. In the end, they decided to use the reproductive ability of galapagos tortoises to solve this problem, and they chose a tortoise called "Diego".
Diego
Tortoise Diego
Diego weighs about 160 pounds, has a heavy and large carapace to protect its head and neck and forelimbs, and its limbs are thick and powerful, but because of its age, the skin has sagging.
Diego, the oldest male tortoise in the Galapagos Islands, originally a subspecies of galapagos tortoises, was classified as a separate species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2014.
Diego with sagging skin
Scientists believe the best way to increase the number of this species is to mate in pairs to breed more Galapagos tortoises. So starting in 1977, people tried their best to get Diego to mate with hundreds of female turtles to produce more offspring.
Diego was placed on an island called Espanola, where there were only 14 Hood subspecies, 12 of whom were females. Diego lived on the island for a while, and when he finally studied the number of tortoises on the island and compared the genes, he found that most of the tortoises living on the island were descendants of Diego, and it is conceivable that Diego is really "not old".
Espanola
Later, Diego was sent to the tortoise breeding center on Santa Cruz Island to complete its mating task "systematically", and it was induced to mate with 6 female turtles, and the results were also remarkable.
According to statistics, in 43 years, the number of tortoises directly and indirectly related to the tortoise Diego is about 800.
Descendants of Diego
This is only the data of 2020, Diego in 43 years of efforts, with "single-handed" to save the population from extinction, although the new number is far from the previous hunt, but after all, this is only the "achievement" of a century-old turtle. In any case, this is a good start to protecting the living conditions of galapagos tortoises. Like the Galapagos tortoise, there are many animals facing extinction crisis, and people have formed different protection measures for their specific conditions and achieved certain results.
Endangered animal conservation measures and achievements
- giant panda
Giant pandas are national treasures of the mainland, and their thick looks and slow behavior are loved by many people, but this is also the reason why they are on the verge of extinction.
In 1869, when a priest named David went to Ya'an, Sichuan Province, to investigate, he found that there was a villager's wall painted with an animal he had never seen before, And David was very interested, so he called dozens of hunters to hunt for this animal, although he did not get live prey, he finally got a specimen of the species.
Father David
This species is the giant panda, and after David brought it back to the West, the giant panda immediately attracted the interest of a large number of Westerners and attracted them to China to catch it. Especially after a woman brought live pandas back to the West, people thought the species was too cute, which further stimulated their desire to go to China to trap giant pandas.
Live pandas brought back
It was also during this period that the number of giant pandas on the mainland decreased sharply, and many giant pandas died when they were caught, and even if they were caught alive, they often died in transit due to long distances and rapid changes in living environment.
It wasn't until the 1940s that the mainland realized the seriousness of the problem and began to order a ban on foreigners entering the country at will to catch giant pandas. In 1961, it was officially designated as a national treasure and actively cultivated, and after decades of efforts, the number of wild giant pandas on the mainland increased to 1864.
national treasure
In addition, the figure of giant pandas can also be seen in some zoos around the world, the current number of giant pandas in captivity in the world is about 600, and there is also a giant panda breeding base in Chengdu, Sichuan, the mainland, dedicated to breeding and raising giant pandas.
Giant panda breeding base
- Chinese sturgeon
The Chinese sturgeon is an endemic species in the Yangtze River Basin that has become endangered in recent years and is almost invisible. In addition, the number of finless porpoises, whitefin dolphins, knifefish, etc. has also decreased dramatically, and it is needless to say that the culprit of this situation is still humans.
Although people have long overfished the Yangtze River Basin, although some people have entered the ranks of millionaires, the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin has deteriorated sharply, resulting in a decrease in fish organisms.
The data shows that the number of fish surviving in the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River alone has dropped from 161 species in the 1970s and 1980s to about 110 species.
The ecology of the Yangtze River has deteriorated
In 2018, only about 1,000 finless porpoises remained on the surface of the Yangtze River, and the white sturgeon has not appeared in people's vision since 2003, and the white-tipped dolphin was also identified as a critically endangered level in 2018.
In order to save species in the Yangtze River Basin, the mainland has decided to impose a ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River Basin from 2021, and all commercial fishing will be banned, and even individual anglers will be allowed to use only one fishing rod. Although the fishing ban policy has caused about 230,000 fishermen to lose their jobs, it is indeed the best option. Even if fishing was not prohibited, the Yangtze River Basin at that time did not have the former style, and fishermen could no longer get higher economic benefits from fishing behavior.
The Yangtze River has been banned from fishing for ten years
More than a year after the implementation of the fishing ban plan, the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin has been significantly improved, many fish populations have rebounded, the once disappeared Dashi fish was also discovered in April last year, and the finless porpoise has also re-emerged into people's vision.
Dasper's squid
In short, the implementation of the fishing ban scheme has indeed achieved some results, proving that the plan is correct and necessary. People have destroyed the ecological environment of many species while developing the economy, making some of them endangered, and the decline of species may have an impact on every link on the earth, but fortunately, it is not too late for human beings to realize their seriousness and are trying to make up for their previous mistakes.