Galapagos Islands - Day 7 - Santa Cruz Island, Puerto Isidro Ayora - 5
A close look at individual tortoises almost suggests an underlying personality. This could be the resident curmudgeon.
... and this could be the ever-optimistic bon vivant.
Whatever they may be feeling, tortoises always have the option to withdraw into their shells, well protected on top by their carapaces and in front by their powerful front legs.
Interestingly, one of the biggest threats to tortoises over the centuries -- after humans, of course -- was feral goats. Goats were brought by early settlers as a food source and subsequently thrived on the islands because they had no natural predators and because they ate practically all available vegetation. They even ate the prickly pear cacti, the main source of food and water for tortoises living on the smaller, arid islands of the Galapagos.
The feral goat population has now been eliminated, and tortoises are even being reintroduced to those islands on which they had become extinct. The prospects for preserving these islands and their unique environment and species seem bright indeed.