GALAPAGOSMATTERS Spring | Summer 2013
Tales of a
Tortoise Tracker Rat Eradication And the race to catch Galapagos hawks
GALAPAGOS MATTERS
Cover Image A saddleback Galapagos tortoise retracted in its shell, photographed by Pete Oxford at the base of Sierra Negra on Isabela Island.
CONTENTS
© Pete Oxford/Minden Pictures/FLPA
savegalapagos.org
4-5 WIn thisild newGalapagos 16-19 FComeeature: Tracking Tortoises feature, we will be celebrating some of the finest photographs on a journey with field biologist Fredy Cabrera, as he describes to come out of Galapagos. In this edition, we showcase ornithologist Sebastian Cruz’s arresting image of a Galapagos hawk following a kill.
6-7 NCatch ewsup on the latest news from the Islands and the work of the Galapagos Conservation Trust’s partners around the world.
8-11 FInvasive eature:ratsRathaveEradication a devastating impact on many native species, notably snails, birds and reptiles. Bradford Keitt details the huge effort to render Galapagos rat-free by 2020 and Julia Ponder describes precautions taken to prevent inadvertent poisoning of Galapagos hawks.
12-13 UAllKtheNews and Events latest news from the Galapagos Conservation Trust, with a list of forthcoming Galapagos-related events around the country.
14-15 PFindroject Update out about some of the exciting projects that the
his work with The Giant Tortoise Project, an international collaboration studying the behaviour of the enigmatic giant tortoises of Galapagos and aiming to inspire a wider appreciation of these iconic species.
20 GInlobal Relevance this new column, GCT’s chief executive Ian Dunn positions the Galapagos in a global context. In this issue, he muses on some of the issues raised by invasive species.
21 MWeembership reveal the findings of last year’s membership survey. 22 RReadeviews up on the latest Galapagos-related culture, including Akemi Yokoyama’s review of Sir David Attenborough’s – Galapagos 3D.
23 Galapagos Gifts
Galapagos Conservation Trust will be undertaking over the next three years and beyond.
CONTRIBUTORS
© Island Conservation
Bradford Keitt is director of conservation at Island Conservation, a non-governmental organisation overseeing the implementation of island restoration projects around the world. Julia Ponder is a veterinarian working in wildlife conservation, currently at The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota in the US.
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GALAPAGOS MATTERS
© Stephen Blake
Fredy Cabrera grew up in Bellavista on Santa Cruz and over the last 15 years has worked for the Galapagos National Park, the Charles Darwin Foundation and now the Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme. He lives in Puerto Ayora with his wife Sandra and their two children.