Zielo Adventures
A Galápagos giant tortoise in the Santa Cruz highlands

Galápagos wildlife · Reptile · Endemic

The Galápagos giant tortoise

Chelonoidis spp. · Testudinidae

Short answer

The Galápagos giant tortoise is not one animal but a group of species, each shaped by the island it lives on. Domed shells evolved on wet, highland islands where food grows low; saddle-backed shells evolved on dry, low islands where the tortoise has to stretch upward to reach cactus. That difference is one of the things Darwin was shown, and it is still the clearest visible argument for natural selection anywhere on Earth.

1 m 2 m A person · 1.75 m 1.5 m

Actual size

shell length, largest males.

Length
1.5 m
Weight
to 250 kg
Lifespan
100+ yrs, 100 years in the wild
The thing people repeat afterwards

The word "Galápagos" comes from an old Spanish word for saddle — named after the shape of the tortoises’ shells, not the other way round.

Where you actually see one

This is the part a general encyclopedia cannot tell you: not where the species occurs, but which sites you can stand on, and what each one is like.

THE EQUATOR EspañolaFloreanaSan CristóbalSanta CruzFernandinaSantiagoIsabelaMarchenaPinta 1 El Chato highlands 2 Charles Darwin Station 3 Puerto Villamil 4 La Galapaguera
  1. 1

    Santa Cruz — The highlands — El Chato and the private reserves

    Wild, free-roaming tortoises in the wet season pastures. The single most reliable sighting in the archipelago.

  2. 2

    Santa Cruz — Charles Darwin Research Station, Puerto Ayora

    The breeding centre. Where you see the hatchlings and the corrals, and where Lonesome George is on display.

  3. 3

    Isabela — Arnaldo Tupiza breeding centre, Puerto Villamil

    Isabela has five volcanoes and historically a distinct tortoise population on each.

  4. 4

    San Cristóbal — La Galapaguera

    A breeding centre with a natural-habitat enclosure, a short drive from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.

Coastlines are real. Darwin and Wolf sit 1.7° further north and are left off so the rest stays legible.

When to go for this one

Year-round. In the Santa Cruz highlands the wet season, December to May, brings the most tortoises down into the open pasture.

The archipelago has two seasons and they are good at different things — we break both down here, month by month.

Turtles and tortoises get confused constantly, and in the Galápagos they are two animals that never meet. The difference, side by side →

How to tell it apart

  • Domed shell: from wet, higher islands with ground-level vegetation.
  • Saddle-backed shell: front of the shell rises like a saddle, letting the neck stretch up to cactus pads on dry islands.
  • Males are markedly larger than females, with longer tails.

What it does, and why

  • Spends up to sixteen hours a day resting. What looks like a boulder is often a tortoise.
  • Migrates seasonally in the Santa Cruz highlands, walking the same routes for decades.
  • Can survive a year without food or water, which is precisely why whalers took them by the thousand in the nineteenth century.

Why people miss it, and who it is not for

This is the part we can write and an encyclopedia cannot: what actually goes wrong when someone comes looking for this animal. It is from running these islands, not from a field guide.

Half the visitors see a corral and think they saw a tortoise

The breeding centres are worth the hour — but the animals are in enclosures. The thing you came for is a wild tortoise crossing a road in the highlands at its own pace, and that is a different morning, a different fee and a different farm. Book both, and know which is which.

The wrong season means an empty field

They move up to the wet highlands in the cool season and disperse when it dries. From roughly January to May you can walk a reserve and see four. From June to December you can see forty. Nobody tells you this because the reserve charges the same either way.

People wait for it to do something

It will not. A giant tortoise eats and walks, and the walking takes an hour to cover what you cover in a minute. Visitors who expect action leave after ten minutes. The ones who sit down for half an hour are the ones who talk about it afterwards.

Conservation status

IUCN Red List: Varies by species — several Critically Endangered, several Vulnerable, and at least three extinct

The population fell from an estimated 200,000–300,000 before human contact to around 3,000 by the 1970s. Captive breeding and the eradication of introduced goats have brought numbers back above 20,000. Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island tortoise, died in 2012 and his species with him.

Questions people ask about the galápagos giant tortoise

How long do Galápagos giant tortoises live?

Over 100 years in the wild, and several documented individuals have passed 150. Harriet, held in Australia, was reported to be 175 at her death in 2006.

Can you touch a Galápagos tortoise?

No. National Park rules require visitors to stay at least two metres from all wildlife, and guides enforce it. The tortoises are not tame, they are unafraid, which is a different thing.

Where is the best place to see wild tortoises?

The Santa Cruz highlands. Not a breeding centre — actual wild tortoises in open pasture, which is a different experience entirely. Every one of our Galápagos itineraries includes it.

How many Galápagos tortoises are left?

Around 20,000 to 25,000 across the surviving species, up from roughly 3,000 in the 1970s. It is one of the more genuine conservation successes anywhere.

What else is on the same islands

These share at least one island with the galápagos giant tortoise. On a real day out you are likely to see several of them on the same walk.