Giant tortoises hatch on Madagascar for first time in 600 years
Scientists are hopeful that Madagascar has a new ecosystem engineer. Giant tortoises are reproducing on the African island after twelve adults were brought to a nature reserve in 2018. In the six years since, 152 Aldabra giant tortoises have hatched.
Since the 1950s, Madagascar’s forests have struggled as humans lit fires to clear land for cattle grazing. Now, such grasslands are fire prone. Giant tortoises will eat the fruit and disperse the seeds of Madagascar’s native and endangered trees, hopefully bringing back forests with open understories that would prevent wildfires and aid efforts against climate change.
Research shows that ebony forests returned after giant tortoises were reintroduced to Mauritius.
Madagascar’s original giant tortoises were hunted to extinction about 600 years ago. For hundreds of years, sailors used tortoise meat as a staple as the giant reptiles could remain alive on a ship for long periods.
The Aldabra giant tortoise is from the Seychelles and a close relative of the extinct species that once roamed Madagascar. The Aldabra is the second largest land tortoise in the world, next to the Galapagos giant tortoise. They can weigh upwards of 775 pounds (350 kilograms) and live up to 100 years.
“Aldabra giants are particularly social, coming together in large numbers to forage and sleep together,” according to The Conversation. “It is likely that many hundreds of thousands of giant tortoises lived historically on Madagascar. … Without the tortoise helping seeds to germinate for the past 600 years, endemic trees have not reproduced as fast as they could have. We believe that reintroducing the tortoise will speed up the growth of forest and woodland considerably.”
The post Giant tortoises hatch on Madagascar for first time in 600 years appeared first on EARTH HOPE.