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DAY SEVEN ~ San Cristobal: Interpretation Center (further continuation)

And of course there were a few large turtles scrambling about in the underbrush, looking for food no doubt.

The giant turtles lay their eggs in large nests they dig out of the ground. They then cover the eggs with the removed earth and urinate on it to make a hard crust to protect the nest. The young turtles once they hatch will spend days trying to dig their way out of the nest. Of course, there are many predators for these newly hatched turtles, so to help the species to survive, man has taken to removing the eggs from the nests and incubating them in a hatchery under very strictly controlled temperature and humidity conditions. I thought that it was very strange that the sex of the turtle is determined by the temperature at which the eggs are kept during the incubation period.

COLLECTION OF THE EGGS. To prevent the destruction of eggs in their natural state, they are extracted from the nests, marked and treated with care. They are collected at the end of the time of incubation to maintain a high success rate of hatching and are taken to the captive breeding center for the last days of incubation, where the Rangers following a rigorous process of intensive care thus getting more of the little turtles born to repopulate the areas they belong to with their parents.

CAPTIVE BREEDING PROGRAM. The captive breeding program for giant tortoises and repatriation, as is the case of the Spanish island, the eggs are placed in an artificial incubator where it is possible to maintain certain temperature ranges, the highest 29.5 °C producing females and the lower at 28 °C producing males. With this simple system, it has been very successful in hatching for the birth of giant tortoises, which after 4 to 5 years of age are taken to their home islands of their parents, their miracles of restocking of several islands where the turtles were threatened or in danger of extinction by introduced species.

HATCHING The eggs remain in incubators for a period of 120 to 130 days to hatch. They are then placed in a wooden box completely dark for a period of 30 days, during which time a yolk sack attached to the turtle provides the necessary food for the newly hatched turtles, and then they are passed to the pens. Hatchlings weigh about 70 to 80 grams.

MEASUREMENT, WEIGHT AND TAGGING Each small turtle's growth is measured along the long curve and the wide curve of the shell, weighed and marked on its shell with a paint color according to their island home. Their growth is faster during the first years of life. Each individual is monitored in the breeding pens every day.

REPATRIATION In the breeding center in captivity, the small turtles are bred in pens until they reach the pre-adaptation size of 20 cm across the long curve of their shell and have approximately reached a weight of 650 grams before being repatriated to their home islands where the eggs were brought from their nests there. Hence forth they will live out their lives and continue their further reproduction in their natural habitat.

There were some rather beautiful flowers along our path as we left the Interpretation Center.

We had some extra time to spend shopping around the town. We didn't buy
anything, but we did have a cool drink at this quaint little restaurant.

The climate of the islands seemed perfect for these bougainvillea to thrive.

Pete relaxing while we wait for the Zodiacs to return to the pier for us.

The sea lions seemed to own this ramp down to the water. Fortunately we did not have
to use it when we were picked up. There was another location that was sea lion free.

On our return trip to the Athala our motor died, and we had to be towed back by a water taxi. That was rather humiliating. One of the Zodiacs had been having trouble with its motor on several occasions. Fortunately we were never stranded in a dangerous situation. The driver always carried a radio, so we were not too concerned. Help would only be a radio call away.

This concludes DAY SEVEN, and I've reached 4.3 MB, so DAY EIGHT will begin in the next chapter.