Galapagos Iguanas back to Baltra

The island of Baltra in the Galapagos Islands archipelago became populated with land iguanas that had disappeared during the U.S. military occupation in World War II, said on Wednesday the Galapagos National Park.
 br /> A total of 420 species of iguanas Conolophus subcristatus or also known as yellow iguanas, one of the world’s most existent endemic species, were reintroduced in Baltra in the last 28 years to live and reproduce in their natural state.
 br /> According to The Galapagos National Park, 74 of these reptiles were taken this week to finalize the reproduction agenda in Baltra, held since 1980.
 br /> “The goal was to repopulate the island Baltra with endemic iguanas, which, for various reasons, disappeared during the occupation of the island by a U.S. military base in the Second World War”, the Galapagos National Park representatives mentioned.
    They noted that the species was saved thanks to a scientific expedition in 1933 that introduced 70 animals on an experimental basis from Baltra to North Seymour island-with similar characteristics-and of which the Galapagos National Park rescued several of these animals to relocate to a breeding centre and breeding in captivity.
 br /> “After a long process of adapting to the new eco-system in 1991 they helped the return of the first 35 iguanas to Baltra”
br /> The Galapagos archipelago, with about 19 000 inhabitants, is located approximately 1 000 km from the coast of Ecuador and from three decades ago is part of the Natural Heritage of Humanity, although Unesco declared it at risk in 2007 due to increased appearance of invasive species.
   Composed by 13 main islands and 17 islets in the Pacific Ocean, Galapagos still has a unique flora and fauna in the world as the giant tortoises that gave its name to that region.
    The “Enchanted” islands served as a natural laboratory to English scientist Charles Darwin to devise his theory on the evolution of species.

Article taken from: Diario El Comercio-Ecuador

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