CHAPTER ONE BACK AGAIN the sun had risen long ago on Isabela Island But the Galápagos tortoise had only been awake a short while The giant reptile took its time moving from the warm mud where it slept It was on its way to munch on a hanging vine The tortoise noticed a small ground finch nearby The tiny bird started rubbing the tortoise's front leg with its beak The tortoise stretched out its neck Wild Galápagos tortoises live exclusively on the Galápagos Islands
But it had no plans to harm the finch The finch had seen a tick crawling up the tortoise's leg Before the giant creature took another step the bird gobbled up the pest The finch had done Not Extinct After All The Floreana species of Galápagos tortoise appeared to have gone extinct in the 1800s But a 2011 study offered new information The study revealed that 84 of the 1 600 animals studied had DNA from the Floreana tortoise DNA is a material found in cells that contains information about how a species will look and behave The tortoises were a mix of different species But it meant the Floreana species was not completely lost It is also possible that pure members of the species are still out there Scientists hope to discover them the tortoise a favor by removing the tick And it had found its own breakfast in the process The finch distracted the tortoise from munching on the vine Instead the tortoise remained still under the morning sun There was
no need for the tortoise to rush There was always grass nearby Lucky to Be Alive Tortoises have roamed the Galápagos Islands for centuries These islands form an archipelago off the coast of Ecuador The Galápagos tortoise caught the eye of English naturalist Charles Darwin Darwin visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835 The tortoise is believed to have played a big role in the development of Darwin's theory of evolution Over time 14 species have evolved from the original Galápagos tortoises This is a process called adaptive radiation Some species are specific to a single island But some islands have more than one species These species are part of the same genus Chelonoidis A genus is a category that contains species with similar characteristics Approximately 250 000 of these reptiles lived on the Galápagos Islands during the 1600s Over time both people and other animals threatened the
