207 giant turtles to be released in the Galapagos

Quito (Equador), May 23: Administrators at Ecuador's Galapagos National Park said 207 giant turtles will be released next month on the island of Santa Fe, where the native tortoises died out more than 150 years ago. The turtles to be set loose on June 5 by the park directors and the Galapagos Conservancy group belong to the species Chelonoidis hoodensis, Spanish news agency Efe reported from the South American nation. Native to the Galapagos island of Espanola, the Chelonoidis is morphologically and genetically similar to the original Santa Fe turtle. The aim of the initiative is to establish "a breeding population that fulfills a function in the ecosystem", park management said. "Once the turtles are introduced, a key part of this project is to assess changes in the ecosystem resulting from the presence of these chelonians, and to evaluate the interaction between the turtles and the island's land iguanas, particularly in the use of shared resources like food," Danny Rueda, Galapagos ecosystems director, said.