WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:03.640 Welcome. This is Marsha for Radio I. To day I 2 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:07.519 will be reading National Geographic magazine. It is September twenty 3 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:11.480 twenty five, which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. 4 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:14.119 Radio Eye is a reading service intended for people who 5 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:17.519 are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult 6 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:20.960 to read printed material. Please join me now for the 7 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:25.879 first article entitled The Dear Devils who keep Lagos Moving. 8 00:00:27.879 --> 00:00:32.960 In the Nigerian metropolis, motorcycle taxi drivers contend with harassment, 9 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:37.000 chaotic streets and gnarly accidents, but without them, the city 10 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.359 of twenty million would grind to a halt. This article 11 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:46.000 by Alexis O Kiowo, the fabric of Lagos, Nigeria is 12 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:49.640 delicately strung together. The mega city spills from the mainland 13 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.640 onto several islands in a lagoon that brushes against the 14 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:56.200 Atlantic Ocean. It covers an area of about thirteen hundred 15 00:00:56.200 --> 00:01:00.960 square miles, and many Lagusians navigate the sprawling landscape on 16 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:05.359 the back of a motorcycle taxi or okada. Their dare 17 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:11.040 devil drivers called riders, zigzag through congested streets, dodging potholes 18 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:14.560 and pedestrians. As both rider and passenger, or in some 19 00:01:14.599 --> 00:01:19.760 cases multiple passengers try to stay upright and unharmed. Public 20 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:23.319 transportation here can be inefficient and roads can be difficult 21 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:27.359 to maneuver on foot. Okadas solve a crucial problem that 22 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:30.879 the government has been unable to solve for years, says 23 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:35.959 photographer and National Geographic Explorer Victor Adawale, who was born 24 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.519 and raised in Lagos. Some see okadas as a menace. 25 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.680 Local officials claim riders are responsible for a large portion 26 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.359 of Lagos traffic accidents and robberies are often committed by 27 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:51.879 people on motorcycles. To improve road safety, bureaucrats have banned 28 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:55.480 commercial motorcycles from bridges, highways and many other parts of 29 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:58.799 the city. In twenty nineteen, the government launched the Bus 30 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:02.480 Reform Initiative, which has deployed hundreds of new buses along 31 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:06.319 dozens of routes across the region. That hasn't decreased the 32 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:10.599 population's appetite for okada's, which are still widely used to 33 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:14.800 ferry commuters to neighborhoods that buses can't reach. Everybody you 34 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:17.400 see on the streets is riding in defiance of the 35 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:22.520 ban because they don't have another option. Otdawali says, Traditionally, 36 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:28.560 the motorcycles have been the cheapest choice for passengers. Some 37 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:32.120 rides cost the equivalent of less than a US dollar 38 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:34.840 and have provided a reliable living for those who drive 39 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.240 them in a city where wages can be hard to 40 00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:39.879 come by. I am still riding because my job as 41 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:42.719 a mechanic is not bringing in the income I need 42 00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:49.120 on time, says Aluwafemei Ipadoda, a friend of Adawali's father, 43 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:52.080 who has driven okadas for over twenty years to pay 44 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:55.439 for his children's education. Fares are beginning to rise as 45 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:59.319 riders factor in the risk of getting caught. Enforcement of 46 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:03.080 the ban is uneven, but residents still operating okada's are 47 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:07.800 vulnerable and face harassment from police, who frequently arrest riders 48 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:13.120 and demand extortion payments in exchange for confiscated motorcycles. People 49 00:03:13.159 --> 00:03:16.800 pay as much as ninety thousand naira fifty seven dollars 50 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:20.479 to get their motorcycle back. Otdawali says, Sometimes they don't 51 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:23.159 get it back, sometimes they have to watch it get crushed. 52 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:27.280 The government has impounded and destroyed thousands of Okada's, a 53 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:31.319 devastating blow the motorcycles are expensive up to thirty three 54 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:36.080 times the median annual salary in Lagos, and riders frequently 55 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:40.120 buy them in installments. Riders haven't taken the ban lying down. 56 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:44.039 Numerous protests have led to clashes with police, and at 57 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:47.080 least one okada union has filed a lawsuit against the 58 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:50.879 government seeking both a repeal of the banded and lost wages. 59 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:55.000 Odawali's option of Okada's has changed over the years. When 60 00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:57.319 he was a boy, his father, who rode okadas for 61 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:00.039 twenty five years, use the same bike to take the 62 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.039 family to church on the market and to drop off 63 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:06.439 Otdawali and his brother at school. His whole family rode 64 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:08.759 on the back of the motorcycle, which was a marker 65 00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:12.080 of lower social class at the time. He felt ashamed 66 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:14.639 it would get off the yokada a short distance from 67 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:18.720 school so his classmates wouldn't see him, but that shame 68 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:22.120 has now evolved into pride. As Otdawale has watched the 69 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:26.079 writers navigate these new challenges, they refused to be erased 70 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:31.160 from the city. Next resurrecting the Lost Tortoises of the 71 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:37.800 Galopagus by Hannah Nordhaus, they thrilled sailors they inspired Darwin. 72 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:42.839 Then by the mid nineteenth century, the iconic Florian Floriana 73 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.439 tortoises were gone. Here's how a group of persistent scientists 74 00:04:46.519 --> 00:04:51.920 unlocked the secrets to bringing them back. In October eighteen twenty, 75 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:55.720 the Nantucket whaling ship Essex laid anchor at a blue 76 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:59.480 green harbor on the Galapagos Island off Floriana, more than 77 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:02.759 six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador. The sailors 78 00:05:02.839 --> 00:05:06.439 rowed their whale boats ashore and followed paths trampled by 79 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:11.600 ancient reptiles, through broken basalts and tangled thickets of salt 80 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:16.000 bush and cactus. Keeping a sharp lookout, rowed cap'n Boy 81 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:20.639 Thomas Nickerson for the objects of their search. They were 82 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:24.759 hunting for Galopicus giant tortoises. The animals varied from island 83 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:28.879 to island. Some had round domed carapaces, while others had 84 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:32.199 shells that curved up at the front like Spanish riding saddles, 85 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:35.720 but all could provide food for multiple sailors. When the 86 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:39.079 whalers found a small turpin, they'd flip it over, tie 87 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:42.399 canvas straps to each of the creature's legs, then hoist 88 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.720 the tortoise under their backs like a knapsap. They'd tie 89 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:48.759 the largest ones, some weighing more than five hundred pounds, 90 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:52.120 by their legs, to long poles, hauling them two or 91 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:56.079 three men per side, across sharp and uneven lava rocks 92 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:59.319 and back to their ship. There they'd stack their captives 93 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:02.759 upside down in the hold like nesting bowls. Tortoises could 94 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:05.800 live up to a year without sustenance. They neither eat 95 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:09.279 nor drank, nor is the least pains taken with them, 96 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:14.399 wrote Owen Chase, the ship's first mate. They are strewed 97 00:06:14.439 --> 00:06:17.160 over the deck, thrown under foot, or packed away in 98 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:20.839 the hold as suits convenience. Yessex took more than sixty 99 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:25.199 of Floriana's tortoises, which had the curved shells known as saddlebacks, 100 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:29.240 and were, Nicholson wrote, the most rich, flavored and delicious 101 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:32.399 meat I have ever met with. Then the ship set 102 00:06:32.439 --> 00:06:35.399 off for the Pacific whaling grounds, where a month later 103 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:38.519 it was rammed by a whale, a disaster that provided 104 00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:44.279 the inspiration for Herman Malville's Moby Dick. The sailors salvaged 105 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:46.759 as many tortoises from the foundering ship as they could 106 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.160 fit on their small whale boats, eating them and eventually 107 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:53.040 each other on their ill fated voyage back to the 108 00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:56.480 South American mainland. The other tortoises sank with a ship 109 00:06:56.600 --> 00:06:59.839 or floated away. Yessex was far from alone in its 110 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:04.720 plundering of Galopicus tortoises. When Charles Darwin arrived at Floriana 111 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:07.680 in eighteen thirty five on the journey that would spark 112 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:11.519 his theory of evolution, he heard of whaling vessel vessels 113 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:14.720 taking as many as seven hundred tortoises on one visit. 114 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:18.600 Their numbers have of course been greatly reduced in this island, 115 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:22.279 he wrote. Historians estimate that between seventeen seventy four and 116 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:26.240 eighteen sixty, passing ships took some one hundred thousand of 117 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:30.079 the nearly three hundred thousand tortoises that lived on the 118 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:34.199 islands when the Spanish arrived in fifteen thirty five, driving 119 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:39.399 populations of all fifteen Galopicus tortoise species into steep decline 120 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:43.160 and three to extinction. The Floriana tortoise, last seen in 121 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:46.639 the eighteen fifties, was the first to disappear almost two 122 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.920 centuries later, though the Floriana tortoise is said to become 123 00:07:49.959 --> 00:07:53.439 the first extinct Galopicus species to be returned to its 124 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:58.360 ancestral home. The revival of these gigantic creatures arrives at 125 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:02.439 a moment when the resurrection of dire wolves is making 126 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:06.519 headlines and scientists are working to retrieve the genes of 127 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:11.639 other long gone creatures like wooly mammos. But such prehistoric 128 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:14.959 species would return to a world that has lived without 129 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.160 them for millennia. The descendants of the Floriana tortoises, by contrast, 130 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.839 will be re induced to the place where they once belonged, 131 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:26.959 playing a critical role in an ecosystem that still desperately 132 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:30.759 needs them. To accomplish that, a team of dedicated scientists 133 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:35.279 has not only pushed the frontiers of genetic sequences sequencing 134 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:39.159 to identify a species that had been hidden from plain view, 135 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.320 but also traveled to remote corners of the archipelago and 136 00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:47.120 sorted through bones and shells from dusty archives to right 137 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:51.480 one of the great wrongs of Galopogus history. This improbable 138 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:54.799 scientific journey began in two thousand as a team of 139 00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:59.279 conservation scientists traped through the densely vegetated gullies at the 140 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:03.279 base of the included Wolf Volcano on the northwest island 141 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:07.279 of Isabella. They confirmed earlier observations that some of the 142 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:11.519 tortoises there looked different. The animals had saddleback shells, a 143 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:14.159 sign that they were a separate species from the more 144 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:19.360 familiar domed ones. On the volcano's higher, wetter slopes, there 145 00:09:19.360 --> 00:09:22.159 were pockets of tortoises that looked out of place, remembers 146 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:27.360 conservation biologist James Gibbs, a National Geographic explorer and leader 147 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:31.759 of the Galopagus Conservancy, whose which works to protect and 148 00:09:32.039 --> 00:09:36.639 restore the archipelago's wild ecosystems. To learn more, Gibbs and 149 00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:40.360 the team took blood samples from every unusual looking tortoise 150 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:44.519 they encountered, placing identification tags on as many as they could, 151 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.039 and sent the specimens to their research partner at Ad 152 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:54.480 del Gisa, Gizella Cocone, and a evolutionary biologist at Yale 153 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:59.360 University and a National Geographic explorer. When she analyzed their DNA, 154 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:03.360 she couldn't identify their genetic sequences. They didn't match those 155 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:07.960 of any living tortoise species in her genetic database. Cacone 156 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:11.679 was bewildered. I called them aliens, she says. We didn't 157 00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:15.320 know where they came from. The researchers considered the possibility 158 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:18.279 that some of those aliens could have floated ashore from 159 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:22.080 whaling ships like the Essex Banks Bay on the volcanoes 160 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:26.799 Western Flank was the final Galopagus anchorage for many ships 161 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:29.759 on their way to the whaling grounds, and sailors were 162 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:33.440 known to sometimes throw their surplus overboard before setting sail. 163 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:36.840 Some of those unwonted animals may have floated to shore 164 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:40.879 and ascended the volcanoes Ragged Flank, living among the native 165 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:44.960 tortoises and eventually breeding with them. The whalers were responsible 166 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:47.759 for the loss of so many tortoises, killing and eating 167 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:51.440 most and carrying a number back home as trophies or pets, 168 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:56.320 but perhaps the scientists speculated they had also inadvertently insured 169 00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:00.399 the survival of the animal's genes. Only after several asis 170 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:04.519 in genetic sequencing technology, with the group realized the sailors 171 00:11:04.519 --> 00:11:10.000 had provided important clues to revive us species. Scientists have 172 00:11:10.039 --> 00:11:12.759 been working to save the giant tortoises of the Galopogus 173 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:15.320 since the middle of the twentieth century. When only a 174 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:19.039 few thousand were left on the entire archipelago. The whalers 175 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:22.080 were gone, but tortoises had continued to fall prey to 176 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:25.639 the creatures they brought with them, rats, pig, dogs and 177 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:29.200 ants that fed on eggs and hatchlings, and goats and 178 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:34.039 donkeys that disrupted and devoured their food supply. Galopogus National 179 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:37.039 Park officials knew they had to do something or risk 180 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:41.440 losing entire species. Beginning in the nineteen sixties, conservation teams 181 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:45.039 used the limited tools then available to save them. They 182 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:49.799 started on Espanola Island, east of Floriana, where the population 183 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:53.960 had been reduced to fourteen individuals. Between nineteen sixty four 184 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:57.519 and nineteen seventy four, park officials moved all the tortoises 185 00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:01.120 from the island to the Charles Darwin Research Station at 186 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:04.840 the park's headquarters on Santa Cruz Island, with the help 187 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.320 of a strapping mail brought in from the San Diego 188 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:11.360 Zoo that, according to records, had come from Espanola in 189 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:16.720 the nineteen thirties. They bred thousands of young after a 190 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.639 laborious campaign to eradicate goats from the island. They then 191 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:24.240 reintroduced the hatchlings, and today more than three thousand tortoises 192 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:29.120 lived there. Park teams replicated that success on other islands 193 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:33.639 as well, But despite those triumphs, there was one glaring disappointment, 194 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.480 not finding a mate for the very last tortoise on 195 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:40.919 Pinta Island north of Floriana. Scientists had rescued the animal, 196 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:44.399 they named Lonesome George from his native island in the 197 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:48.879 early nineteen seventies, transporting him to a quarrel at the 198 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:53.759 park's research station in hopes of preventing a fourth species 199 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.919 from going extinct. In the years that followed, they actiously 200 00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:01.559 searched for a partner. They first scoured Pinta with no look. 201 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:04.679 Then they placed females of other species with saddle backed 202 00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:08.559 shells that resembled those of the Pinta in George's corral 203 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.799 at the research center. When he showed no interest in breeding, 204 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:15.759 they tried artificial insemination. The females did finally nest in 205 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:19.600 George's corral, but the eggs were all infertile. By the 206 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:23.759 early two thousands, the conservation icon was close to one 207 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:26.879 hundred years old and time was running out for the species. 208 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:31.639 At the same time, developments in genomes sequencing were allowing 209 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:35.759 Cocone to expand her tool kit to identify the Wolf 210 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:39.399 Volcano eid aliens. In two thousand and six, she used 211 00:13:39.399 --> 00:13:43.080 a new method of dnaal analysis to retest the samples. 212 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:46.879 She made the astonishing discovery that the scientists had collected 213 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:50.039 blood from a tortoise whose genes appeared to be fifty 214 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:53.639 percent Pinta. Perhaps it wasn't too late for lonesome George, 215 00:13:53.879 --> 00:13:56.519 and they could find Pinta relatives on the island and 216 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.879 save the species. Thrilled, she proposed that the park scent 217 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:03.360 another expedition to the volcano. We said, we have to 218 00:14:03.399 --> 00:14:05.759 go back there. We need to find this animal. If 219 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:09.159 there is one, there could be many more. Still trying 220 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:12.840 to pinpoint the other strange Wolf Volcano genes, she also 221 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.720 began to look more closely at the three species than 222 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:19.240 believed to have gone extinct, the Santa Fe tortoise, the 223 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:25.440 ferninad Fernandina tortoise, and the Floriana tortoise. Without the DNA 224 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.240 of live animals to compare to the alien genes, the 225 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:32.120 only cells available for sequencing were from old specimens carried 226 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:36.039 across the ocean by whalers or scientific collectors. We went 227 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:38.919 around to museums to collect samples of bone and skin, 228 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:43.320 Cocona says. At the American Museum of Natural History they 229 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.879 found bones of New York Naturalism had unearthed in nineteen 230 00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:52.159 twenty eight from lava caverns on Floriana deep chasms where 231 00:14:52.279 --> 00:14:56.279 some tortoises had tumbled and died. At Harvard University's Museum 232 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:00.720 of Comparative Zoology, they found bones and shells in eighteen 233 00:15:00.759 --> 00:15:04.600 thirty four and eighteen seventy two. They were very porous, 234 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:08.600 she says, gray looking crumbly and desiccated. Even so, she 235 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:13.159 managed to scrape enough genetic material to obtain sequences of 236 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:17.360 their DNA and booms. She says the alien tortoises were 237 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:23.559 in the same clade ancestral grouping with Floriana. The saddlebacks 238 00:15:23.559 --> 00:15:27.879 were hybrids of the native Wolf Volcano domed species mixed 239 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:33.279 with the long extinct Floriana saddleback species. The scientist's speculations 240 00:15:33.320 --> 00:15:38.360 had been correct. The whaler's castaways castaway tortoises had survived 241 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:40.960 an inch or bread. In two thousand and eight, a 242 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:44.519 large expedition returned to Wolf Volcano to collect more samples 243 00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:47.279 so the team could get a better idea of how 244 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:51.000 many Floriana and Pinta tortoises were on the island, and 245 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:54.399 searched for possible mates for George. Teams from the Park 246 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:58.440 and the Galopagus Conservancy set up camps around Wolf Volcano 247 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:02.679 and collected blood samples from sixteen hundred sixty seven tortoises, 248 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:07.080 placing identification tags on each one. In her Yale lab, 249 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:12.200 Cocone analyzed those samples against her expanded database and found 250 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:16.960 seventeen tortoises with Pinta genes and eighty four with Floriana ancestry. 251 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:20.759 Still hoping to find more pintas, the Park team embarked 252 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:24.480 on the lengthy process of planning, permitting, and funding another 253 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:28.200 expedition to the volcano with a helicopter and nets to 254 00:16:28.279 --> 00:16:32.360 allow them to retrieve those hybrids. But in June twenty twelve, 255 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:36.039 lonesome George's keeper found him dead in his corral, end 256 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:39.519 of his line, end of his species. Later under cropsy 257 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:44.639 would reveal George had an anatomical problem with his sperm 258 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:50.120 duct and was probably incapable of reproducing. As scientists relinquished 259 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:52.919 the idea of saving the pinta species. They focused on 260 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:56.279 the Floriana hybrids. People had given up hopes so long 261 00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:00.159 ago for the species. Explains Gibbs that it took some 262 00:17:00.279 --> 00:17:03.639 time for the researchers to understand the opportunity that these 263 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:08.319 numerous living relics presented, But when they did, they realized, Wow, 264 00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:12.000 this is actually as significant as finding pinted tortoises on 265 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:16.160 Wolf Volcano, says Gibbs. It was then that the conservation 266 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:20.640 team began to consider a radical proposal, capturing and breeding 267 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:25.160 the descendants of the species and repopulating Floriana, where the 268 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:28.519 animals hadn't lived for more than one hundred and fifty years. 269 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:34.519 Returning tortoises to Floriana wasn't important solely because scientists had 270 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:38.559 found a lost species. It was also ecologically critical. Here 271 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:42.599 in the galopagus, Darwin had observed that species were exquisitely 272 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:47.160 adapted to their habitat. Only recently have ecologists begun to 273 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:51.920 realize how exquisitely adapted habitats are to the creatures that 274 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.200 live there. When the last tortoise disappeared from Floriana, the 275 00:17:56.279 --> 00:18:00.240 island's species suffered. Important native plants began to die off 276 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:05.359 while populations of invasive pests, plants, and livestock exploded, eating 277 00:18:05.559 --> 00:18:09.200 or out competing native plants and animals. By the end 278 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:12.599 of the nineteenth century, the islands mocking birds, racer snakes, 279 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:17.039 rails and hawks had disappeared. In the years that followed, finches, 280 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:21.279 barn owls, lava gulls, and vermilion flycatchers went missing too. 281 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:25.160 Ark officials hoped to mend the hole in the ecosystem 282 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:29.480 the lost tortoises had left behind. Without giant herbivores, the 283 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:34.880 balance of an island ecosystem can collapse, says Washington Waco Tapia, 284 00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:39.359 a biologist who has worked in galopagus conservation since the 285 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:44.920 nineteen nineties. Tortoises are ecosystem engineers, shaping vegetation as they 286 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:48.920 move like bulldozers across the landscape. They flattened the ground 287 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:52.799 and opened the land for small reptiles, ground nesting seabirds, 288 00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:56.880 and native plants, says Tapia. Keeping weeds at bay helping 289 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:01.039 native cacti regenerate, spreading seeds with their dung in creating 290 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:06.079 ponds and wallows that also harbor other species. Researchers knew 291 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:10.319 that the animals had helped restore ecological balance on other islands. 292 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:15.799 On Espanola, for example, scientists observed native grasses and cacti 293 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:21.640 recovering along with the lazo liverts, lava liverts, and albatross 294 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:25.759 that declined in the tortoise's absence. Where the giant reptiles 295 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:28.920 have returned, ecosystems have flourished. This is a bit of 296 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:34.920 a change of mind and restoration notes are turo Iszuriata Valerie, 297 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:39.000 who until recently was the park's director. Today, conservation teams 298 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:43.559 bring back missing animals with a focus on an extended ecosystem. 299 00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:48.759 Restoration scientists new knowledge of species genetics allows them to 300 00:19:48.759 --> 00:19:51.720 make certain they are breeding creatures that are truly suited 301 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.880 to surviving there. The goal of all this work has 302 00:19:54.920 --> 00:19:59.279 never been to do de extinction or recreate the Floriana tortoise, 303 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:04.519 says University of Newcastle conservation biologist Evelyn Jensen, a former 304 00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:09.680 postdoc of Kutchon's, because that's never been possible. Tortoises lived 305 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:12.240 too long and take too much time to reproduce, and 306 00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:15.240 achieving something close to purity, she says, would be a 307 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:18.720 five hundred year project. The goal instead is for the 308 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:22.680 descendants of the extinct species to return, survive, and fulfill 309 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:28.119 their ancestors' ecological role in their native habitat. But Floriana 310 00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:32.079 had changed dramatically since a native tortoise last roamed the island. 311 00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:34.920 Now there's a community of one hundred and fifty people there, 312 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:38.240 along with their pets and livestock, and thousands of rats 313 00:20:38.279 --> 00:20:42.799 and feral cats that, if left alone, would eat eggs 314 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:46.920 and hatchlings and compromise the species' ability to reproduce. Soon 315 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:51.440 after setting their sights on the Floriana species, park officials 316 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:54.839 began meeting with the island's residents to secure their approval 317 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:57.640 for a plan to poison and trap the rats and cats. 318 00:20:58.119 --> 00:21:01.839 These invasive animals would need to be eradicated or strenuously 319 00:21:01.880 --> 00:21:05.839 suppressed to ensure tortoises would once again populate the island. 320 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:10.400 As those negotiations moved forward, the park finally put preparations 321 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:13.720 in place to send an expedition to retrieve the hybrids 322 00:21:13.720 --> 00:21:17.720 from the volcano in twenty fifteen. The scientists arrived just 323 00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:21.160 before the wet season, spreading out across the volcano, using 324 00:21:21.319 --> 00:21:24.920 machetes to push through the thick underbrush. You don't have 325 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:30.000 shade water, says Tapia. There are ticks all over your body. 326 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:33.319 It was a grueling landscape, which made the survival of 327 00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:38.480 these transplanted creatures all the more remarkable. When the rainfall began, 328 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:42.799 the Enkanyata's ravines that flood during storms began to flow. 329 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:46.640 We could hear tortoises crawling from all over to the waters, 330 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:49.559 he says. Researchers gathered two or three at a time, 331 00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:53.319 then as the helicopter hovered overhead, they loaded them into 332 00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:56.960 a large net and dropped them onto cushioned beds of 333 00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:00.440 car tires on the ship's deck, stacking them up in 334 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:03.640 the hall, much as the whalers had two centuries earlier. 335 00:22:04.119 --> 00:22:07.160 It looked like a Noah's Ark for tortoises. Kuchone says. 336 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:09.920 At the end, the hull was full, and we'd put 337 00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:13.880 them everywhere on the sides. The team found thousands and 338 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:17.839 thousands of tortoises on the secluded volcano, but Kuchone says, 339 00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:22.079 and collected thirty Floriana hybrids, but they couldn't bring them 340 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:25.440 to Floriana yet. Instead, they would have to transport the 341 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:29.039 animals to the National Park's breeding center on Santa Cruz 342 00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:34.039 Island in hopes of building a healthy population. Kuchone's scientific 343 00:22:34.119 --> 00:22:37.480 insights continued to guide the team after the expedition. Once 344 00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:40.720 the adults arrived at the research station, she analyzed their 345 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:43.440 genes to create a stud book, a list of the 346 00:22:43.480 --> 00:22:48.279 individuals with high proportions of Floriana jeans. The objective was 347 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:51.759 to match up the hybrids to both increase Floriana jenes 348 00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:56.359 in their offspring and protect their genetic diversity. If we 349 00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:59.920 release all identical individuals and a virus comes by, she says, 350 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:03.480 they could be wiped out. When it came time to 351 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:07.799 make them. The breeding team placed three hambras females with 352 00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:11.160 two MACHOs. Any more and the males would get into fights. 353 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:15.160 The tennis ball sized eggs produced from those couplings, up 354 00:23:15.160 --> 00:23:19.519 to fifteen per clutch, hatched in incubators. The hatchlings, each 355 00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:22.160 about the size of the palm of your hand, then 356 00:23:22.279 --> 00:23:25.559 moved to age sordid corrals to mature until they were 357 00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:29.519 big enough to survive reintroduction at around five years old. 358 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:32.720 All of the wolf tortoises offspring have proved to be 359 00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:37.720 incredibly fit and robust, says Gibbs. Today, six hundred Floriana 360 00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:40.799 hybrids live in the breeding center, and three hundred are 361 00:23:40.839 --> 00:23:45.319 old enough for reintroduction down a sandy path in the 362 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:49.079 far reaches of the research station. Park, breeding director Freddy 363 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:54.039 Villaba throws an armful of branches of Plorotilla and introduced 364 00:23:54.079 --> 00:23:58.440 tree with large, she shield shaped leaves into a shaddy, 365 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:02.039 shady corral that contains one hundred forty one of the 366 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:06.039 oldest and biggest Floriana hatchlings, each now nearly two feet 367 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:09.519 long and ready to return to the island. They converge 368 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:12.559 on their food, extending their long necks and hissing as 369 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:15.759 they jockey for position, climbing over each other like monster 370 00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:18.680 trucks to get to the branches and soon reducing their 371 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:24.079 breakfast to gray, desiccated stalks. Valaba calls this enclosure the 372 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:28.839 choral de las iocas home of the Crazies. Kachone knows 373 00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:32.920 more about these young tortoises than was conceivable even a 374 00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:36.400 decade ago. She has now sequenced multiple genomes of all 375 00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:41.160 the living Galopocus tortoise species using nuclear DNA, the individual 376 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.359 genetic manual that makes you who you are. As her 377 00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:49.519 colleague Evelyn Jensen, explains that in depth nuclear genome analysis 378 00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:53.720 has provided some additional surprises. Keachoni's early work had shown 379 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:57.480 that the Wolf volcano aliens had a mix of Floriana, 380 00:24:57.559 --> 00:25:02.759 Isabella and Pinta ancestry, but after examining more museum specimens, 381 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:07.160 Caconi and Jensen's Jensen realized that the wolf hybrids had 382 00:25:07.240 --> 00:25:11.279 less Pinta ancestry than they originally thought. Instead, the team 383 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:16.319 found genes from Espanola tortoises. It's not just two species hybridizing, 384 00:25:16.680 --> 00:25:19.119 it can be three, or maybe even four, says Jensen. 385 00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:23.200 This is a good thing the scientists belief with complex ancestry, 386 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:27.440 she adds, they're actually quite genetically diverse. What will happen 387 00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:31.000 next remains a scientific mystery. Perhaps the hybrids with the 388 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:34.920 most native genes will flourish on Floriana, but the island 389 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:38.000 is a different place now, a novel ecosystem, as the 390 00:25:38.039 --> 00:25:43.000 ecologists say, where native organisms mix with human introduced ones. 391 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:46.839 The locosts will have to contend with thickets of invasive 392 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:51.039 BlackBerry shrubs and lemon and guava trees brought by early 393 00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:54.920 human settlers, with scarcer stands of the cactus they love 394 00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.119 to eat, and a change in climate. Ecosystems don't stand still, 395 00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:02.880 either species or their genes. The team will put the 396 00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:06.920 tortoises on the island, saskatchone, then let natural selection take 397 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:10.480 its course. Whatever survives will probably be best suited to live 398 00:26:10.519 --> 00:26:13.400 on the island. She says. Whatever survives will have some 399 00:26:13.559 --> 00:26:17.319 genes from Floriana to help the newcomers. The park and 400 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:21.119 a local conservation group have over the past several years 401 00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:24.160