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
Dr. James P. Gibbs is Distinguished Professor of Conservation Biology in the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology at SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, New York, US and Conservation Scientist for the Galapagos Conservancy. He received his Ph.D. in forestry and environmental studies from Yale University, Connecticut, US. He has worked on biodiversity conservation issues in the Galapagos over four decades. Dr. Linda J. Cayot has worked for Galapagos conservation for 40 years. She received her PhD on Galapagos giant tortoises from Syracuse University, New York, US. Dr. Cayot served as herpetologist at the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) from 1988 to 1998. In 1997-98, she initiated Project Isabela, aimed at eradicating feral goats on northern Isabela Island. She worked for Galapagos Conservancy in the US from 2006 to 2019, where she played a lead role in the development of the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative. Washington Tapia A. is the director of the of the Galapagos Conservancy’s Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative. He received his master's degree in conservation of tropical biodiversity from San Pablo University CEU, Sevilla, Spain and is pursuing his Ph.D. in biodiversity and environmental studies at the University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain. He has led conferences and headed numerous research publications focusing on the conservation and environmental factors on Galapagos animals including giant tortoises and land iguanas.
"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
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