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Galapagos tortoise migration plays a fundamental role to maintain healthy tortoise populations. Understanding the ecological, social, and sanitary implications of these movements allows us to reduce the threats the tortoises are facing and contributes to their conservation.
This program is a multi-institutional collaboration between the Charles Darwin Foundation, Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, Galapagos National Park Directorate, Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine, Houston Zoo, and Galapagos Conservation Trust. Drs. Stephen Blake and Sharon Deem lead the program with the support of a local team based in Galapagos and a large number of international collaborators and partners.
Principal Investigator
Ainoa Nieto
Investigator
Investigator
Stephen Blake, Sharon Deem, James Gibbs, Martin Wikelsky, Diego Ellis-Soto, Kyana Pike, Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau, Charles Yackulic, Jamie Palmer, Kathleen Apakupakul, Maris Brenn-White.
We started our program in 2009, with a few GPS devices, a field notebook, and a bike. We wanted to show, for the first time, whether Galapagos tortoises truly migrate; with the following questions in mind: where do the tortoises go every year? How and why do they move? And more important, how do human impacts may affect the conservation of such emblematic species?
.Ten years of dedicated research and tons of data support now our theory: Galapagos tortoises can move long distances every year, and their movements vary according to islands, species, ecosystems, and health condition.
We work in three islands (Española, Santa Cruz and Isabela) with four different tortoise species (Chelonoidis hoodensis, C. porteri, C. donfaustoi and C. vandenburghi). We use tracking devices such as GPS and VHF to understand the movements of adult and juvenile tortoises in their natural environment. We also study the tortoise health, diet, the reproductive success of the nests, the survival of baby tortoises, and the impact of physical barriers (fences, roads, etc.) that tortoises may encounter along their migratory routes.
Our team includes nowadays a large number of experts; biologists, ecologists, veterinarians, sociologists, geographers, and educators work together to produce cutting edge applied science and information that can be used by local institutions to maximize the conservation of these species.
In addition to ecological, reproductive, and social studies, the program has a strong research component focusing on tortoise health. We are assessing the health of giant tortoises and how the interaction with humans and domestic animals may affect their well-being.
The main goal of this project is to better understand Galapagos tortoise migrations, and the social, ecological and sanitary aspects that may affect their conservation.
We have movement ecology data of more than 120 tortoises from three different islands. We know, for example, that Española tortoises do not migrate, whereas tortoises from Alcedo volcano (Isabela) can migrate long distances every year. We did calculate that one tortoise can walk up to 10 km in two weeks and spread thousands of seeds during its journey. We also know that migratory animals use the same routes year by year, and that, on Santa Cruz Island and Alcedo volcano, both males and females migrate from the dry lowlands within the National Park area to the humid highlands where food is available all year round.
We now know the movements of newborn tortoises in El Chato area on Santa Cruz Island. Our data show how baby tortoises move a relatively long distance from their nest, walking up to half a kilometer away until they find a place where they can feed and survive during the upcoming years.
We know that the incubation temperature determines tortoise sex; warmer temperatures will result in more females whereas colder temperatures will deliver more males. In Western Santa Cruz (C. porteri), most of the males are born in colder and more humid areas where young tortoise survival is lower because of environmental conditions.
Our Program also has a strong education and outreach component. Anne, our local coordinator, leads numerous activities all year round to translate our science results to the local community and disseminate our results to visitors and international students. Our education projects are based on experiential learning, giving the local students the opportunity to actively participate in field and laboratory activities, and experience the challenges of working with and for wildlife species in the Galapagos Islands.
Keywords: Galapagos tortoise, Galapagos, One Health, migration
• Nieto-Claudín, A., Esperón, F., Apakupakul, K., Peña, I., & Deem, S. L. (2021). Health assessments uncover novel viral sequences in five species of Galapagos tortoises. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 00, 1– 11. https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14391
• Nieto-Claudín, A., Deem, S.L., Rodríguez, C., Cano, S., Moity, N., Cabrera, F., Esperón, F. (2021). Antimicrobial resistance in Galapagos tortoises as an indicator of the growing human footprint. Environ Pollut. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117453.
• Nieto-Claudín, A., Palmer, J.L., Esperón, F., Deem, S.L. (2021). Haematology and plasma biochemistry reference intervals for the critically endangered western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise (Chelonoidis porteri). Conserv Physiol 9(1): coab019; doi:10.1093/conphys/coab019.
• Blake, S., Yackulic, C. B., Cabrera, F., Deem, S. L., Ellis-Soto, D., Gibbs, J. P., Kummeth, F., Wikelski, M., Bastille-Rousseau, G. (2021). Movement ecology. In: Gibbs, J.P., Cayot, L.J., Tapia, W.A. (Eds.), Biodiversity of the world: conservation from genes to landscape series, Galapagos giant tortoises (pp. 261-277). Elsevier, USA.
• Nieto‐Claudín, A., Esperón, F., Blake, S. & Deem, S.L. Antimicrobial resistance genes present in the faecal microbiota of free‐living Galapagos tortoises (Chelonoidis porteri). Zoonoses Public Health. 2019; 00:1–9. https ://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12639
• Bastille-Rousseau, G., Yackulic, C. B., Gibbs, J. P., Frair, J. L., Cabrera, F., & Blake, S. (2019). Migration triggers in a large herbivore: Galápagos giant tortoises navigating resource gradients on volcanoes. Ecology, 100(6), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2658
• Benitez-Capistros, F., Nieto Claudin, A.,Cabrera, F., Couenberg, P., and Blake, S. (2019). Identifying shared strategies and solutions to the Human-Giant Tortoise conflict in Santa Cruz, Galapagos. Sustainability 11(10), 2937.
• Benitez-Capistros, F., Camperio, G., Hugé, J., Dahdouh-Guebas, F., & Koedam, N. (2018). Emergent conservation conflicts in the Galapagos Islands: Human-giant tortoise interactions in the rural area of Santa Cruz Island. PloS one, 13(9), e0202268.
• Bastille-Rousseau, G., Gibbs, J. P., Yackulic, C. B., Frair, J. L., Cabrera, F., Rousseau, L. P., Wikelski, M., Kümmeth, F., & Blake, S. (2017). Animal movement in the absence of predation: environmental drivers of movement strategies in a partial migration system. Oikos, 126(7), 1004–1019. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.03928
• Bastille-Rousseau, G., Potts, J., Yackulic, C., Frair, J., Ellington, E., & Blake, S. (2016). Flexible characterization of animal movement pattern using net squared displacement and a latent state model. Movement Ecology, 4(1), 15.
• Bastille-Rousseau, G., Gibbs, J. P., Campbell, K., Yackulic, C. B., & Blake, S. (2017). Ecosystem implications of conserving endemic versus eradicating introduced large herbivores in the Galapagos Archipelago. Biological Conservation, 209, 1–10.
• Sheldon, J. D., Stacy, N. I., Blake, S., Cabrera, F., & Deem, S. L. (2016). Comparison of Total Leukocyte Quantification Methods in free-living Galapagos tortoises (Chelonoidis Spp.). Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, 47(1), 196–205.
• Bastille-Rousseau, G., Yackulic, C. B., Frair, J. L., Cabrera, F., & Blake, S. (2016). Allometric and temporal scaling of movement characteristics in Galapagos tortoises. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85(5), 1171–1181.