Fausto Llerena Breeding Center - Puerto Arroyo, Santa Cruz

This morning we returned to Puerto Arroyo for a visit to the Fausto Llerena Breeding Center, a short walk from the municipal pier.

The Galapagos breeding program is a joint venture of the Galapagos National Park staff and scientists from the Charles Darwin Research Center. Since the 1970s they have made great efforts to repopulate islands with giant tortoises and yellow land iguanas that for decades were victims of poaching and had to cope with introduced predators and competitors for food.

Tortoise eggs are brought from the the islands of Pinzón, Santiago and Santa Cruz to the station. The eggs are incubated artificially; the tortoises are born and reared here until they re 5 years old, when they can survive the effects of introduced predators (rats, pigs and dogs). Then they are returned to their native areas. The program has been a big success. Since 1970, more than 2000 tortoises have returned to the native areas. 

One of the success stories is that of the Hood Tortoises from Espanola. Before the program began there were just 14 individuals remaining on the island that had been overgrazed by goats. With the breeding center program and the eradication of goats there is now a healthy population of over 2000 individuals. There have also been set backs such as the story of ‘Lonesome George’, the last remaining individual of the Pinto species who perished of natural causes two years ago without being successfully bred. His death brought a species of Galapagos giant tortoises to extinction, but his legacy remains in the vast knowledge that was acquired of the physiology and reproductive systems of these reptiles.