Tortoise Research Day

 This morning on Santa Cruz was honestly one of those moments you don’t really forget. We spent the time out in the field with giant tortoises, walking through their habitat and getting close to them.



Some of them were absolutely massive — easily over 150 kg. Just standing next to them felt surreal. For the biggest ones, we didn’t even try to weigh them because it was obvious they were way too heavy, so we just took carapace and plastron measurements and moved on.

But the real highlight were two tiny baby tortoises we found. One weighed about 3 kg and the other only 1 kg. They were unbelievably small, especially compared to the adults, and we were even allowed to carefully hold them. Our instructors said these were the smallest tortoises they had ever seen in the wild — and they’ve been doing this for years — which made it feel even more special.

It’s crazy to think that these little ones will one day grow into those huge giants we saw earlier. Experiences like this really make you realize how unique this place is.

By Rebecca

All of our work in the National Park was not able to be photographed due to rules and regulations!


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