Identification of Genetically Important Individuals of the Rediscovered Floreana Gal\xe1pagos Giant Tortoise (Chelonoidis elephantopus) Provides Founders for Species Restoration Program

Joshua M Miller,Luciano B Beheregaray,Andrés A Valdivieso,Ryan C Garrick,Adalgisa Caccone,Maud C Quinzin,Michael A Russello,Elizabeth A Hunter,Danielle L Edwards,Claudio Ciofi,Jorge Carrión,Washington Tapia,James P Gibbs,Nikos Poulakakis,Danny Rueda

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-11516-2

Abstract

Species are being lost at an unprecedented rate due to human-driven environmental changes. The cases in which species declared extinct can be revived are rare. However, here we report that a remote volcano in the Galápagos Islands hosts many giant tortoises with high ancestry from a species previously declared as extinct: Chelonoidis elephantopus or the Floreana tortoise. Of 150 individuals with distinctive morphology sampled from the volcano, genetic analyses revealed that 65 had C. elephantopus ancestry and thirty-two were translocated from the volcano’s slopes to a captive breeding center. A genetically informed captive breeding program now being initiated will, over the next decades, return C. elephantopus tortoises to Floreana Island to serve as engineers of the island’s ecosystems. Ironically, it was the haphazard translocations by mariners killing tortoises for food centuries ago that created the unique opportunity to revive this “lost” species today.

Highlights

Species are being lost at an unprecedented rate due to human-driven environmental changes
Here we report that a remote volcano in the Galápagos Islands hosts many giant tortoises with high ancestry from a species previously declared as extinct: Chelonoidis elephantopus or the Floreana tortoise
Of 150 individuals with distinctive morphology sampled from the volcano, genetic analyses revealed that 65 had C. elephantopus ancestry and thirty-two were translocated from the volcano’s slopes to a captive breeding center

Summary

Important Individuals of the Rediscovered Floreana Galápagos

Giant Tortoise (Chelonoidis elephantopus) Provides Founders for Species Restoration Program. Recent research found living, wild tortoises with genetic ancestry from two of the extinct saddle-backed species, C. elephantopus and C. abingdoni (hereafter referred to as the Floreana and Pinta tortoises, respectively) outside their native range[25,26,27,28]. These individuals, likely the descendants of tortoises translocated among islands by mariners[22,23,29], were discovered on the remote Volcano Wolf on Isabela Island (Fig. 1a,b). We determined suitability of the tortoises for a genetically informed captive breeding program aimed at reintroducing these key ecosystem engineers to their native island

Results and Discussion

BC to PBR

Materials and Methods

Author Contributions

Additional Information