Giant tortoise feared extinct found on remote Galapagos island

[FearLess]

A living member of species of tortoise not seen in more than 110 years and feared to be extinct has been found in a remote part of the Galapagos island of Fernandina.

An adult female Chelonoidis phantasticus, also known as the Fernandina Giant Tortoise, was spotted Sunday by a joint expedition of the Galapagos National Park and the U.S.-based Galapagos Conservancy, Ecuador's Environment Ministry said in a statement.

Investigators think there may be more members of the species on the island because of tracks and scat they found. The team took the tortoise, likely more than 100 years old, to a breeding center for giant tortoises on Santa Cruz Island where it will stay in a specially designed pen.

(Washington Tapia, member of Galapagos Conservancy, transports a specimen of the giant Galapagos tortoise Chelonoidis phantasticus, thought to have gone extinct about a century ago, to the Galapagos National Park on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean 1000 km off the coast of Ecuador, on February 19, 2019. - The adult female was found earlier in the day during an expedition in Fernandina Island, in the Galapagos, Ecuadorean Environment Minister Marcelo Mata announcement on Tuesday. (Photo by Rodrigo BUENDIA, Getty Images)

The only other living member of the species was found in 1906, the group said. Since then, expeditions have encountered tortoise scat and bite marks on cacti, and there was a possible unconfirmed sighting in 2009. But Sunday's discovery was the first confirmed sighting and together with the possibility of finding more members of the species has raised the possibility of breeding.

"They will need more than one, but females may store sperm for a long time," said Stuart Pimm, a professor of conservation ecology at Duke University. "There may be hope."

Fernandina is the third largest Galapagos island and features the La Cumbre volcano, one of the most active in the world. The archipelago lies in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) off Ecuador's mainland.