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Home » Destinations » South America » Ecuador

Giant Land Tortoise

Modified: Mar 4, 2020 · Published: Oct 2, 2011 by Dave Lee |

Giant Land Tortoise
Giant Land Tortoise

During our second visit to Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos, we had the chance to see Giant Land Tortoises in the wild on Rancho Primicias.

These guys can weigh over 800 pounds each, and live over 100 years.

It was estimated that there were once 250,000 on the islands, but due to hunting by man, those numbers have declined drastically.

Breeding programs are in full effect to help save these amazing creatures, and they now number about 19,000 (Wikipedia).

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About Dave Lee

Dave is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Go Backpacking and Feastio. He's been to 68 countries and lived in Colombia and Peru. Read the full story of how he became a travel blogger.

Comments

  1. Henry Williams says

    October 03, 2011 at 7:34 am

    lol wow that picture is kinda scary that thing is huge

Dave at Ahu Ko Te Riku on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile.

Hi, I'm Dave

Editor in Chief

I've been writing about adventure travel on Go Backpacking since 2007. I've visited 68 countries.

Read more about Dave.

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