DAY 4
You’ve Adopted a Galápagos Giant Tortoise for One Day
Together with the Charles Darwin Foundation
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What is your positive impact today?
Image credit: Juan Manuel García, CDF
Happy World Wildlife Conservation Day! Today, you’ve symbolically adopted a Galápagos giant tortoise for one day! And with your adoption, you contributed to the research and outreach activities of the Charles Darwin Foundation’s Giant Tortoise Conservation program. This initiative aims to determine the giant tortoises’ movement behavior, assess their health, and describe their ecological role in the Galápagos ecosystems.
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Why is your impact important?
The increasing human footprint poses a number of threats to the Galápagos Archipelago’s wildlife, including the giant tortoises. With a permanent human population of around 32,000, Galápagos is visited by more than 200,000 tourists each year. Some of the biggest threats for the Galápagos giant tortoises are habitat change and fragmentation, climate change, introduction of new diseases, and invasive species.
The islands were once thought to be home to at least 250,000 tortoises, but their population is currently estimated only at between 30,000 to 35,000 individuals. In fact, the islands were named after the giant tortoises’ saddle-shaped shells: “galapágo” is an old Spanish word for saddle.
Image credit: Carlos Espinosa, CDF
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How are we achieving your impact together?
Image credit: Juan Manuel García, CDF
Our impactful partner for today is the Charles Darwin Foundation. They help protect wildlife on the Galápagos Islands—including the Galápagos giant tortoises—from invasive species, increased tourism levels, climate change, illegal fishing, and other human activities.
To achieve this, they combine scientific research and conservation action, working with scientists from all over the world and the local community. All while spearheading various environmental education and community outreach initiatives to develop the next generation of environmental stewards in the islands.
More About the Charles Darwin Foundation
The Charles Darwin Foundation was founded in 1959 by a group of passionate scientists, researchers, and conservationists, who recognized the need to protect the fragile ecosystem of Galápagos. The Charles Darwin Foundation and their Research Station are not only the largest and oldest science and conservation organization in Galápagos, but they also collaborate with more than 300 scientists from around the world, publish about 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers every year, have 17 active research and conservation programs, and have trained more than 3,200 volunteers.
By far the most remarkable feature in the natural history of this archipelago […] is that the different islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by a different set of beings.
– Charles Darwin; English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology
