Scientists thought that the Giant tortoises were extinct for more than 1 century, but a couple of days ago they found one Giant Tortoise in the Galapagos Islands.
This discovery was really big as scientists can help the tortoise survive, the tortoise did do a great job by hiding for more than a century…
Members of the GNP (Galapagos National Park) and the US NGO Galapagos Conservancy discovered the female Fernandina Giant Tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus), the tortoise is an adult and is a female.
The Galapagos National Park members were on an expedition in the Fernandina Island that is located in the western region of Ecuadorian, Galapagos Islands.
The discovery of the giant tortoise was announced by the Minister of the Ecuadorian Environment, Marcelo Mata, but, he did not reveal any further details about the tortoise.
The Minister of the Ecuadorian Environment, Marcelo Mata, also tweeted images of the tortoise, the last known photograph of the reptile was captured in 1906.
Twitter users tweeted the Minister of the Ecuadorian Environment and requested him to keep the tortoise in its natural habitat.
One Twitter user tweeted: “In fact, it is expected that it will not be left in its habitat because it is an endangered species.”
Another one tweeted: “I agree to be captured for preservation purposes.”
A third Twitter user tweeted: “Excellent news for Galapagos, Ecuador and the world. At the end of the tunnel, there is always a glimmer of hope. Congratulations”.
The Giant Tortoise is said to be one of the 15 species of giant tortoises that are present in the Galapagos islands.
Back in 2015, Ecuador announced that they have discovered a number of new species in the Island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands.
The tortoise was named as “Chelonoidis donfaustoi” to honor Fausto Llerana the person who took care of “Lonesome George” the last known kind in its species, he was a male Pinta Island Tortoise who had a scientific name of Chelonoidis abingdonii.
The local media said that Lonesome George passed away in 2012.
According to the scientists in the region, they believe that the species came to the Galapagos Islands about 2 or 3 million years ago, after they drifted away 600 miles from the South American coasts on the vegetation rafts. The tortoises were already big even before they arrived in the Galapagos Islands.
Even Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands for around 35 days during his second voyage, the reptiles were also mentioned in his writings, he said that the reptiles played a big role in the development of the “Theory of Evolution”.