The Ecology and Conservation of Migration in Galapagos Giant Tortoises.
Blake, Stephen.
The Ecology and Conservation of Migration in Galapagos Giant Tortoises. - 2015
The Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme (GTMEP) has been operational since 2009. Our over-arching goal is to assist the Galapagos National Park (GNP) to effectively conserve giant tortoises by conducting cutting edge applied science, and developing an inspirational tortoise based outreach and education programme. In 2009 we started the programme with the deployment of eight GPS tags onto adult tortoises on Santa Cruz Island to determine if they migrated up and down the volcanic slopes of the island as had been suggested as early as Darwin (Darwin 1839) but never confirmed. Data from these tags demonstrated that migration did indeed occur, and concluded that food quality, rather than temperature, is a major driver of the migration (Blake et al. 2013). We also showed that this is a partial migratory system, in which only adults migrate, and even among adults, not all chose to migrate in a given year. We completed complementary ecological research on Galapagos tortoises, documenting their important role in seed dispersal (Sadeghayobi et al. 2011, Blake et al. 2012). To accompany the research work, we developed an outreach programme in which we involved local Galapagos students both in the research, and in the development of various educational activities such as web site design, interview techniques and reporting. With the production of some tangible results we were able to secure additional funding in 2010 which allowed us to expand the geographic focus of the project to three Galapagos Islands and include four different species of tortoise in the research (Figure 1). This platform now allows us to become more ambitious in our research programme and attempt to understand how tortoises adapt their movement ecology in response to the environmental variation across the archipelago. During this period, we have also consolidated outreach and education activities with the Ecology Project International Galapagos and the Galapagos National Park.
English
Ecology. Ecología. Conservation. Conservation. Migration. Migración. Giant Tortoises. Tortugas gigantes. Galápagos.
999.999
The Ecology and Conservation of Migration in Galapagos Giant Tortoises. - 2015
The Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme (GTMEP) has been operational since 2009. Our over-arching goal is to assist the Galapagos National Park (GNP) to effectively conserve giant tortoises by conducting cutting edge applied science, and developing an inspirational tortoise based outreach and education programme. In 2009 we started the programme with the deployment of eight GPS tags onto adult tortoises on Santa Cruz Island to determine if they migrated up and down the volcanic slopes of the island as had been suggested as early as Darwin (Darwin 1839) but never confirmed. Data from these tags demonstrated that migration did indeed occur, and concluded that food quality, rather than temperature, is a major driver of the migration (Blake et al. 2013). We also showed that this is a partial migratory system, in which only adults migrate, and even among adults, not all chose to migrate in a given year. We completed complementary ecological research on Galapagos tortoises, documenting their important role in seed dispersal (Sadeghayobi et al. 2011, Blake et al. 2012). To accompany the research work, we developed an outreach programme in which we involved local Galapagos students both in the research, and in the development of various educational activities such as web site design, interview techniques and reporting. With the production of some tangible results we were able to secure additional funding in 2010 which allowed us to expand the geographic focus of the project to three Galapagos Islands and include four different species of tortoise in the research (Figure 1). This platform now allows us to become more ambitious in our research programme and attempt to understand how tortoises adapt their movement ecology in response to the environmental variation across the archipelago. During this period, we have also consolidated outreach and education activities with the Ecology Project International Galapagos and the Galapagos National Park.
English
Ecology. Ecología. Conservation. Conservation. Migration. Migración. Giant Tortoises. Tortugas gigantes. Galápagos.
999.999