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Today, it is the great news for animal lovers around the world:
The giant tortoise of Fernandina, thought to have gone extinct 115 years ago, is still alive, although only one in number.
This giant tortoise, found by a 2019 expedition on the island of Fernandina in western Ecuador, is a female, more than 100 years old.
Scientists at Yale University took DNA samples from it and compared them with the remains of the remains of the only male, the Fernandina giant tortoise, and found that they did belong to the same species.
Today, Ecuador's environment minister, Gustavo Manique, tweeted the good news.
"More than 100 years ago, this animal was considered extinct! We now confirm that it still exists. This is a turtle found on the Galapagos Islands, Chelonoidis phantasticus. Starting with good news like this, we can do better management work. Hope always! ”
This is indeed great news for biologists around the world, because the last time people saw this species was in 1906.
For a century, humans didn't find a trace of it, and the IUCN Red List list listed it as "critically endangered (probably extinct)."
(Because of the found of this turtle, the red list of endangered people has just been lowered)
It is the fault of humans themselves to find the Fernandina Giant Tortoise, which is so painstaking.
On the Galapagos Islands, there were originally 14 species of giant tortoises, but 4 were completely extinct, or nearly extinct.
The Galapagos Islands are volcanic archipelagos located in the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator and consist of 7 large islands, 23 small islands and more than 50 rocky reefs.
Due to the influence of the peruvian cold current, the climate here is unique, close to the equator but cool, and the isolated islands are home to many animals unique to the world.
For example, there is the only iguana in the world that can swim in the sea, the sea iguana.
The only unfightly cormorant in the world, the weak-winged cormorant.
The only penguin living in the northern hemisphere, the Galapagos penguin.
And, of course, there's the symbol of the Galapagos Islands, the world's largest tortoise, the Galapagos tortoise.
The Galapagos tortoise does not refer to a species of tortoise, but to the different subspecies of tortoises that live here. Because the ecological environment of different islands is different, the appearance of tortoises is also different, and these differences also led Darwin to think about "evolution".
Fernandina giant tortoises are the tortoises that live on Fernandina Island, they are smaller than the tortoises on other islands, with hemispherical shells and short necks.
Because of its remote location, all the Galapagos tortoises originally lived on the island without controversy.
It was not until 1535 that The Bishop of Panama, Tomas de Berlanga, in order to mediate a civil unrest, stumbled through the area and returned to report to the Spanish Empire.
In the following centuries, when Spain colonized here, they found that the meat of the turtles tasted very delicious and could be boiled in oil, so they hunted and killed them.
The habitat of the tortoises was also used by the Spaniards as farmland and livestock farms, and the area that originally belonged to them was occupied by cattle and sheep. The loss of habitat leads to a reduction in food, exacerbating the tortoise's survival dilemma.
In the 16th century, there were still 250,000 tortoises on the island, and by 1970, only 3,000 remained.
Of the 14 tortoise subspecies, only 10 survive in the wild. Only one of the 11th subspecies, the Pinta Island tortoise, died in June 2012, leaving no offspring.
As for the Fernandina Giant Tortoise? It disappeared as early as the beginning of the 20th century and became a legend in the hearts of biologists and locals.
In recent years, however, there has been some unsubstantiated eyewitness evidence that the Fernandina giant tortoise may still be alive.
In 2017, park administrators said feces and crawling marks were seen on the volcanic slopes of Fernandina Island, proving that giant tortoises were indeed possible.
When they got the news, the scientists were so excited that they prepared three expeditions, equipped with tortoise veterinarians and helicopters, to search for the animal on land and in the air.
On February 17, 2019, the expedition set off at 6 a.m., passing through numerous lava flows and finding what looked like turtle droppings at noon.
There are also a lot of clues on the dirt. The expedition team saw a unique mark belonging to the giant tortoise, with dirt piled up next to the huge pit, and footprints and tortoiseshell marks on the left and right.
The expedition knew that the giant turtle was nearby. They searched around carefully and finally found the Fernandina giant tortoise hiding under the leaves in a patch of vegetation 2.5 miles away.
It was small, shrunk around the neck, and hid in the shell of the tortoise when lifted by the expedition.
And humans hid for more than 100 years, and finally, they found it.
This time, however, humans will not eat it again, but will protect it. The giant tortoise was sent to the Tortoise Breeding Center for conservation and was recently sent to Yale University for DNA matching.
Johannah Barry, former president of the Galapagos Nature Conservancy, said that because sailors in the 19th and 20th centuries often carried giant turtles around, they could not be sure that the turtles living on Fernandina Island must be Fernandina giant tortoises.
But this time Yale's DNA matching results proved that they were not mistaken, and Fernandina Giant Tortoise was indeed alive!
Expedition leader Forrest Galante said: "As a biologist, I have dedicated my life to these animals that are considered extinct. This is the biggest scientific achievement I've achieved so far, and the proudest moment! ”
Garrant hopes that the female Fernandina giant tortoise will revive the entire race, and this turtle will live to be 200 years old, and now in its 100s, it is not too old.
"Just as 'George Alone' is a sign of extinction, I believe this turtle can be a sign of the rebirth of wild animals." It is the rarest turtle in the world and one of the greatest discoveries of the Galapagos Islands of the last century. ”
The Galapagos Tortoise Breeding Center keeps more than 7,000 tortoises in captivity, and when a certain number is reached, they are released into the wild.
The breeding centre has saved many endangered animals, once there were only 14 tortoises on Espanola, but now more than 1,000 are bred.
Although scientists have not yet found a male Fernandina giant tortoise, the one in front of them can also mate with other tortoises and pass on the genes.
After a hundred years of hiding, the hundred-year-old turtle was invited out of the mountain by humans to revive the whole clan, and there is a long way to go...
ref：
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9621107/Giant-tortoise-Galapagos-confirmed-species-thought-gone-extinct-100-YEARS-ago.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/galapagos-giant-tortoise-found-species-considered-extinct
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/26/extinct-giant-tortoise-found-galapagos/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/extinct-fernandina-giant-tortoise-found
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ToforgiveN: The small island creature that made Darwin realize the theory of evolution, but it was terminated by human beings, the ultimate product of earth's evolution, and was tragically extinct. It's ironic.
Shlimzl: Humans are really arrogant! In order to exterminate others for themselves, they are still captive with the aura of reviving species; do you want to face it?
Super Scarf Man: Well, humans always want to mend the damage caused in the past, but they don't think much of it
AgentLia: Hey, I found out, why did I lift her up??????!!!!! All scared!
Glasses Demon_ Come and have a snowball fight: IELTS reading does this
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