Floreana giant tortoise reintroduced to Galápagos island ...

What’s Happening

Here’s the thing: Subspecies driven to extinction by hungry whalers returns after ‘back breeding’ programme using partial descendants Giant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years.

The Floreana giant tortoise ( Chelonoidis niger niger ), a subspecies of the giant tortoise once found across the Galápagos, was driven to extinction in the 1840s by whalers who removed thou The Floreana giant tortoise. Charles Darwin landed on the island in 1835, the subspecies was already in its death throes. (plot twist fr)

Photograph: Carlos Espinosa /PR View image in fullscreen The Floreana giant tortoise.

The Details

Photograph: Carlos Espinosa /PR Galápagos Islands Floreana giant tortoise reintroduced to Galápagos island after almost 200 years Subspecies driven to extinction returns after ‘back breeding’ programme using partial descendants Patrick Barkham Fri 20 Feb 2026 16. 00 EST Prefer the Guardian on Google Giant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years.

Remarkably, 158 juvenile giant tortoises descended from the Floreana subspecies have been returned to the island in a vital step for the largest ecological restoration project undertaken on the Pacific Ocean archipelago. A relic population of giant tortoises found out on Wolf volcano in the north of Isabela Island in 2008 were found to be descended in part from the Floreana population .

Why This Matters

Most of the Wolf volcano tortoises had domed shells like those living on Isabela’s other volcanoes to the south, but some had a saddleback-shaped carapace more typical of the tortoises that evolved on Floreana. A captive “back breeding” programme began in 2017, for which 23 hybrid tortoises most closely related to the Floreana subspecies were chosen to recreate it as genetically close to the original as possible. More than 600 hatchlings had been born by 2025, and several hundred grew large enough to be returned to their ancestral island.

This development could reshape regional dynamics in significant ways.

The Bottom Line

More than 600 hatchlings had been born by 2025, and several hundred grew large enough to be returned to their ancestral island.

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