Galapagos Giant Tortoises

ISBN-13: 9780128175545 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020

James P. Gibbs; Linda J. Cayot; Washington Tapia a.

Recenzje

"I want to emphasize that this book is not just for Galápagos giant tortoise enthusiasts. It also highlights the many lessons that have been learned from restoration of Galápagos ecosystems. I teach an undergraduate course on conservation biology and always include a discussion of "ecological substitutes” as a means or restoring lost ecological functions. The comprehensive list of tortoise rewilding efforts around the globe (Chapter 2) will definitely be incorporated into my discussion of this topic the next time I give the course. My course similarly includes a unit on eradication of invasive species, and the eradications successfully completed in the Galápagos (Chapter 19) are certainly a guide for future eradication attempts around the globe. I was particularly interested in the rat eradication carried out on Pinzón Island (Chapter 22) and the immediate benefits detected for not only Galápagos giant tortoises, but also land snails, lava lizards, Galápagos snakes, cactus finches, and Galápagos rails.

This leads to my final point about the book's inspiring accounts of individual tortoises. Although we are all aware of the incredible longevity of giant tortoises, the stories in this volume brought it home to me in a way I had not experienced before. I was particularly moved by the story of Diego (Chapter 21), the Española giant tortoise who was collected from his home island in 1934, spent 43 years at the San Diego Zoo, was then transferred to the Tortoise Breeding Center to participate in the captive breeding program for another 43 years, before being returned to his home island in 2020. It is incredible to think of any living organism having witnessed so much change, but the authors of this volume calculate that 2% of Galápagos giant tortoises alive today would have been present when Darwin visited the islands in 1834. It is only due to their extreme longevity that the tortoises were able to persist through centuries of human exploitation and invasive species (e.g., there was no natural tortoise recruitment on Pinzón for over a century). I commend the authors for composing engaging chapters across the board and the editors for forming them into a cohesive volume." --The Quarterly Review of Biology

Spis treści

Section I: Overview 1. The Galapagos: Island Home of Giant Tortoises 2. Galapagos tortoises: Protagonists in the spectacle of life on Earth

Section II: History of Human - Tortoise Interactions 3. Human perceptions of Galapagos tortoises through history 4. The era of exploitation: 1700-1959 5. Darwin and the Galapagos giant tortoises 6. The Collectors: Beginnings of scientific inquiry and the lasting impacts of living and museum collections

Section III: Natural History 7. Evolution and phylogenetics 8. Morphology 9. Reproduction 10. Thermoregulation 11. Behavior and Diet 12. Population biology 13. Movement ecology 14. Habitats 15. Role in Ecosystems 16. Galapagos Tortoises in a Changing Climate

Section IV: Conservation: Slow Rescue from Near Destruction 17. History of Galapagos tortoise conservation 18. Tortoise health 19. Invasive Species: Impacts, Control, and Eradication 20. Tortoise Populations after 60 Years of Conservation

Section V: Restoration Case Studies 21. Española Island: From Near Extinction to Recovery 22. Pinzón Island: A Century of Zero Tortoise Hatchlings to a Growing Population 23. Floreana and Pinta Islands: Restoring Tortoise Populations through Lost Lineage Recovery 24. Santa Fe Island: Return of tortoises via a replacement species

Section VI: Into the Future 25. Beyond rescue to full recovery