Animal · Ecuador
Galápagos tortoise
Chelonoidis niger — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The Galápagos tortoise is the largest tortoise in the world and one of the longest-living animals on Earth, sometimes surviving more than 150 years. It lives only on the Galápagos Islands.
Picture credit: E bailey (CC BY-SA 4.0) · E bailey (CC BY-SA 4.0) · E bailey (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the galápagos tortoise live?
Home: The volcanic islands of the Galápagos, Ecuador.
In the wild you find it in: Ecuador.
Conservation status from the IUCN: vulnerable.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures Shell up to 1.3 m long. It weighs about 250 kilograms. On the menu: plants.
The story behind it
Galápagos tortoises can survive for up to a year without food or water, storing large reserves of fat and water in their body, a trait that once made them valuable, if grim, food supplies for sailors, who could keep them alive on ships for months. Different islands are home to tortoises with differently shaped shells: some have domed shells and live where food is plentiful near the ground, while others have saddle-shaped shells with a raised front that lets them stretch their neck higher to reach cactus pads. Tortoises move slowly, at less than a kilometre an hour, but can live for well over a century, with one famous individual named Harriet reaching an estimated age of over 170 years. Historic hunting and introduced predators like rats and pigs devastated populations, and although conservation programmes have helped, most surviving species remain vulnerable.
Find it on the globe
Galápagos tortoise is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How long do Galápagos tortoises live?
Galápagos tortoises are among the longest-living animals on Earth, with wild individuals thought to live over 100 years and some captive tortoises surviving past 170 years, longer than almost any other animal species.
Why do some Galápagos tortoises have different shaped shells?
Tortoises on drier islands with less ground vegetation evolved saddle-shaped shells with a raised front, letting them stretch their neck up to reach cactus pads, while tortoises on lush islands kept a rounder, domed shell.
Why are Galápagos tortoises vulnerable?
Galápagos tortoises were hunted heavily by sailors for food in past centuries, and introduced animals like rats, goats and pigs destroyed nests and habitat. Conservation programmes have helped, but most surviving species remain vulnerable.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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