Floreana Island has been missing something for nearly 180 years.
Once, giant tortoises wandered its volcanic slopes in their hundreds — slow-moving, ancient creatures that had shaped the island's ecology for millions of years, dispersing seeds, grazing vegetation, creating pathways through the brush that other animals used. They were Galápagos giants: the kind of animal that makes you feel the weight of deep time.
Then sailors arrived. Then whalers. Then settlers. The tortoises were taken for food, their eggs collected, their habitat altered. By the 1840s, the Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger) was gone — extinct on its home island.
For 180 years, Floreana has been without them.
Until now.
In February 2026, as part of one of the most ambitious ecological restoration projects ever attempted in the Galápagos, **158 captive-bred juvenile tortoises were released onto Floreana Island** — beginning a decades-long effort to bring the giant tortoise back to the island it once called home.
The tortoises aren't genetically identical to the lost Floreana species — that would be impossible without a time machine. But they carry it. Scientists discovered that a population on Wolf Volcano, on Isabela Island, carried between 40% and 80% of the genetic makeup of the extinct Floreana tortoise — likely descendants of animals transported by sailors centuries ago. By selectively breeding adults with the strongest genetic link to the original species, the breeding programme has produced juveniles that are, in many meaningful ways, the closest thing to a Floreana tortoise that exists.
The 158 released animals are between 8 and 13 years old — large enough to defend themselves against the rats and cats that still inhabit the island, and robust enough to begin making their mark on the landscape.
Because giant tortoises are not just animals. They are **ecosystem engineers**.
As they move through the island, they disperse seeds in their droppings, creating new plant growth. They graze vegetation down, opening clearings. They wear trails through the undergrowth. For millions of years, the Galápagos' ecology evolved with tortoises at the centre of it. Floreana's ecosystem has been off-kilter ever since they disappeared.
The February 2026 release is just the beginning. The Floreana Ecological Restoration Project — one of the most comprehensive island restoration efforts in history — plans to introduce between 700 and 800 tortoises to the island gradually over the next decade. It also aims to reintroduce 12 other locally extinct species.
'This is a hugely significant milestone,' said one project coordinator. 'These animals are returning home.'
Floreana Island is about to become, slowly, what it was before. 🐢
*Sources: Galápagos National Park Directorate · Island Conservation · Mongabay · Galapagos Conservation Trust*
