Fernandina Galápagos Tortoise
'Extinct' since 1906. A single old female walked out of a volcanic hillside in 2019
No confirmed photograph exists
Location
Fernandina Island, Galápagos, Ecuador
Overview
The Fernandina tortoise was described from one specimen collected in 1906 by a California Academy of Sciences expedition. The island it came from — Fernandina — is one of the most volcanically active places on Earth, erupting repeatedly throughout the 20th century. No tortoise was seen there for 113 years. In 2019, a Galápagos Conservancy team found a single elderly female in dense vegetation on a lava-covered hillside, dehydrated but alive. Genetic analysis confirmed she was Chelonoidis phantasticus — the same species as the 1906 specimen. She was the only known living member of her species. She was taken to a breeding facility on Santa Cruz Island. The following year, Fernandina erupted again.
Why haven't we found it?
How any tortoise survived on an island that has experienced major lava flows in nearly every decade since 1900 is genuinely unknown. Fernandina has no permanent fresh water and limited vegetation at most elevations. The 2019 female's age was estimated at over 100 years — meaning she was alive when the species was last confirmed seen, and may have been alive when the 1906 specimen was collected. Whether she represents a small surviving population or the final individual is what every subsequent expedition has been trying to determine.
How it was found
- 1
Before finding the female, the 2019 survey found fresh tortoise tracks and droppings on Fernandina — evidence of recent activity, not merely an ancient survivor in stasis.
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Drone surveys of Fernandina's remote interior in 2022 and 2023 identified areas of vegetation at specific elevations that tortoises would preferentially use. Those areas have not yet been reached on foot.
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Galápagos tortoises can survive without food or water for up to a year by metabolising body fat — a resilience that makes survival through volcanic events more plausible than it would be for most large animals.
Things worth knowing
- 1
The species name, phantasticus — Latin for 'fantastic' or 'phantasm' — was given by the 1906 collecting expedition, apparently reflecting how extraordinary the find seemed even then. That name turned out to describe the species' entire history.
- 2
The 2019 female was found at approximately 250 metres of elevation. On other Galápagos islands, tortoise populations cluster at specific elevation bands. Researchers are now systematically surveying the equivalent elevation band around Fernandina's entire perimeter.
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A breeding programme using the 2019 female has not been possible because no males of the species are known to exist. Genetic material has been preserved and searches for additional individuals are ongoing.
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Fernandina's most recent major eruption was in April 2020 — one year after the female was found. Lava flows affected portions of the habitat where she had been located.
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Other Galápagos tortoise species have been successfully recovered from single-digit populations through captive breeding — the Española tortoise was reduced to 15 individuals in the 1960s and now numbers over 2,000 from a programme that began with those 15.