Search is on to find more 'extinct' Galapagos Islands giant tortoises

Following research supported by Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, more expeditions are planned on Fernandina Island

The giant tortoise Fernanda. Photo: Galapagos National Park Directorate

Expeditions to the remote Galapagos Islands are being drawn up to try to find more examples of a tortoise species once thought extinct in the hope that they can reproduce.

A female named Fernanda by scientists who found her in 2019 is related to Lonesome George, the only other encounter with the species who was discovered in 1906, research supported by the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund found.

Fernanda is named after her Fernandina Island home, where more expeditions are being planned.

“It is a truly exciting discovery that the species is not in fact extinct, but lives on,” said study lead author Dr Evelyn Jensen from Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences.

“Only two tortoises have ever been found on Fernandina Island, and here we have shown that they are indeed members of the same species, and different from the other Galapagos tortoises.”

Scientists sequenced genomes of the 1906 specimen, known as chelonoidis phantasticus, and the 2019 female. They found the two were linked and distinct from all others, according to the findings published in Communications Biology on Thursday.

“What comes next for the species depends on whether any other living individuals can be found,” Dr Jensen said.

“If there are more Fernandina tortoises, then a breeding programme could start to bolster the population. We hope that Fernanda is not the ‘endling’ of her species.”

Other expeditions found signs of at least two or three more tortoises living on the island, giving hope that Fernanda may not be the last of her kind.

For now, Fernanda is in a similar position to Lonesome George, famed for being the last of the Pinta Island Galapagos giant tortoises.

He lived out his final decades of life in captivity but never bred and his species was thought extinct in 2012 when he died of old age.

Fernandina Island is an active volcano at the western side of the Galapagos Islands, which Charles Darwin visited in 1835, inspiring his theory of evolution.

The male specimen used in the study was collected by explorer Rollo Beck during an expedition by the California Academy of Sciences in 1906.

Researchers believe Fernanda, who was found in an isolated vegetation patch cut off by lava flows, is about 50 years old and has suffered stunted growth.

She is now being kept in captivity in the Galapagos National Park Tortoise Centre.