S00E01 BBC Lonesome George And The Battle For Galapagos
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00:00Lonesome George is the most famous tortoise in the world. He is also the only one of his kind.
00:09His ancestors were slaughtered over a century ago.
00:13Discovered and rescued in the seventies, he's come to symbolize the plight of the
00:21unique animals of the Galapagos and the battle to restore the islands to their former glory.
00:26For a while, Galapagos was considered beyond saving. Decades of conservation
00:36work succeeded in buying time, but the wildlife is once again under attack.
00:57Tensions between local people and wildlife run high. The islands have been brought to
01:03the point of crisis, but those same people may offer the islands their best chance of salvation.
01:08Extreme measures are being taken. In 21st century Galapagos, can its unique wildlife
01:21be spared the same fate as Lonesome George? Staring extinction in the face.
01:26The famous Galapagos Islands, a tropical paradise,
01:40remote, fantastical, and renowned for their abundance of wildlife.
01:45The islands take their name from the Spanish word for giant tortoise.
01:54This is one of only two places in the world where these reptiles are found.
01:59They're a naturalist's dream, the most pristine tropical archipelago in the world.
02:08Far flung off the west coast of South America, the Galapagos Islands are isolated by hundreds
02:18of miles of ocean in every direction. This isolation has led to the evolution
02:25of so many unique species. And that same isolation has protected
02:31them from human colonization and disturbance. But the islands are changing.
02:3830,000 people now call these islands home. They're mostly immigrants from mainland Ecuador.
02:48Galapagos is a province of Ecuador and the people retain a strong national identity.
03:03The vast majority have arrived in the past 20 years.
03:11The islands are famous for the tameness of their animals.
03:20Here, more than anywhere else on earth, humans and wildlife appear to live happily side by side.
03:27In this pristine wilderness of Galapagos,
03:32you can almost believe that you're in a modern-day Garden of Eden.
03:36But in reality, this trusting wildlife is particularly vulnerable.
03:48Despite the illusion of paradise, the animals have been suffering for as long as people have
03:53been present here. There's no better case in point than the story of Lonesome George.
03:59On the outskirts of town, Lonesome George has his own corral within the
04:05protective boundaries of the National Park and Charles Darwin Research Center.
04:10Fausto Lurena is the chief warden responsible for Lonesome's comfort and well-being.
04:16He's grown fond of his precious charge.
04:21If you have a special place in your heart for him,
04:28he wants to show that he has a special place in his heart for people, too.
04:34He comes in here with his food. He's always attentive, always looking at the door.
04:44And when he looks at us, he goes to the meeting, he extends his head, his neck,
04:52as if he wants to greet us, welcome us and say, here I am, I'm fine.
05:00As if he wants to say something with those movements that he has.
05:05He is unique. He's in the Guinness Book of Records as the loneliest creature on earth.
05:15He is, quite simply, the only surviving member of his race,
05:20the only Pinter Island giant tortoise in existence.
05:24The rest of his kind were mostly wiped out by whalers and buccaneers in the 18th and
05:3519th centuries.
05:41Ships full of hungry men at sea for months on end.
05:47They had this problem of fiddling and they got to Galapagos and they would look forward
05:52to it for weeks because that's where they could get tortoises.
05:59If you've come around Cape Horn and you've been living off mummified penguins and rotten
06:03pork for months and you've got the chance of stocking up your ship with several tonnes
06:09of absolutely fresh living meat by dumping a few hundred tortoises in the holds,
06:16the quality of life for you increases a great deal, although it reduces a lot for the poor
06:21animals in the hold.
06:28It's thought that Galapagos had 13 races of giant tortoises spread across the larger
06:33islands of the archipelago.
06:36It was the outlying island populations that were first plundered by the visiting sailors.
06:41The first race to go extinct, as far as we can tell, was on Floriana where the noteworthy
06:47Mr Charles Darwin visited in the 1830s.
06:51And he was there in the very closing stages of the existence of that tortoise.
06:56By 1840, as far as we can tell, it was gone.
06:59In fact, Darwin may have eaten some of the very last ones and the shells were thrown
07:04overboard from the beagle as they sailed off.
07:07So it was a different ethic in those days.
07:09You had to survive.
07:14Nearly all the populations were decimated by the visiting sailors.
07:18At least two races were considered extinct by the middle of the 20th century, while the
07:23tortoises of Pinter Island were known only from skeletons and a 19th century lithograph.
07:30The Pinter tortoise always fascinated me personally because it was such a weird looking animal.
07:35And as you can see, it just doesn't look like other tortoises.
07:38It's just taller and the texture of the shell is completely different.
07:43And it struck me as, hey, I've seen giant tortoises in the London Zoo, but there's nothing
07:48like that.
07:51You can see this uprising neck, tiny little beady eyes, and that shape would not work
07:59on the continent.
08:00Some jaguar would get in and just rip it apart.
08:03But in this Eden-like atmosphere of Galapagos, it doesn't need the protection anymore.
08:07That shell's a millimetre thick, just enough to hold it together so it doesn't fall into
08:11two halves on the trail.
08:18The last living tortoise on Pinter was recorded in 1906.
08:23After that, only bones were found, until, that is, in 1971, a visiting snail scientist
08:30happened to recount the details of his collecting trip to tortoise expert Peter Pritchard.
08:38I was talking about saddleback tortoises and their adaptations for certain kinds of islands.
08:41And he said, well, you know, the tortoise we saw last week on Pinter wasn't really very
08:46saddleback.
08:48I said, what did you say?
08:50I'd just about dropped my teeth.
08:51He said, well, we were up in Pinter doing the snails, and this tortoise came out, and
08:55it was the only one we saw.
08:56So I took a picture of it.
08:57And I said, can I see the picture?
09:01This one photo brought a species thought to be extinct back to life.
09:08Inspired by this evidence of a living Pinter tortoise, the National Park authorities immediately
09:13sent out a search party.
09:16I am a member of the group that found the solitary Jorge on the island of Pinter.
09:25It was under a bush, and they saw something moving, and they thought it was a snail.
09:32So when they got closer and closer, they saw that it was the solitary Jorge.
09:39This, the only footage ever taken of a tortoise on Pinter, was recorded by Peter Pritchard,
09:45who, keen to share in this remarkable discovery, had followed the park rangers out to the island.
09:53By the time we arrived, they had found lone St. George, and he was tied up by one leg,
09:58hobbling around on the little area just behind the coast, and waiting to be taken away.
10:15He was taken back to the National Park headquarters on Santa Cruz Island for safekeeping.
10:31News of his discovery spread far and wide.
10:35And he became the most famous tortoise in the world.
10:38I mean, anyone who knows about tortoises or Galapagos knows about Lonesome George.
10:44Lonesome's story brought the plight of the Galapagos tortoises to the attention of the world,
10:51at a time when there was growing concern about the impact of man on nature.
10:56Yet, despite this, the natural riches of the Galapagos continued to be plundered.
11:03Nowhere are those riches more vivid than under the waves.
11:08This is one of the most productive tropical marine ecosystems in the world.
11:17The impact of local fishermen on this marine life had always been small.
11:23Fishing was primarily for subsistence, as the island's remote location meant there was no external market.
11:31But in 1989, there was a change in the fishermen's fortunes.
11:35A market suddenly opened for a rather unlikely catch.
11:41The sea cucumber.
11:43These animals are a delicacy in the Far East.
11:46They're cooked in soups and considered to be an aphrodisiac.
11:52Asian buyers arrived in Galapagos offering large amounts of cash to anyone who could supply them.
11:58Fishermen used to earning a few hundred dollars a year could earn several thousand in a day.
12:04Just by picking the defenseless animals up off the sea floor.
12:11The sea cucumber bonanza changed the islands forever.
12:17Hundreds of fishermen from the continent streamed into the islands.
12:21Soon, they were harvesting up to a million animals every week.
12:25Within a few years, the sea cucumbers had all but disappeared.
12:30It was time for the national park authorities to step in.
12:36They set quotas and imposed size restrictions.
12:40And not just for the sea cucumbers, but for all marine resources.
12:44Lobster numbers were also in rapid decline.
12:47They had the authority to confiscate illegal catches,
12:50while legal catches were validated with their stamp of approval.
12:54The image of Lonesome George.
12:59This was the first time the national park had seriously concerned itself with the day-to-day affairs of the Galapagan people.
13:06Not everyone was pleased.
13:10The fishermen demonstrated against ever tighter restrictions,
13:13complaining they could no longer make a basic living.
13:20They vented their anger against the national park,
13:23even burning an effigy of the park's director.
13:28In the year 2000, the national park buildings on Isabela Island were comprehensively trashed.
13:37Scrawled on the walls were threats to the lives of the staff who worked here.
13:50Ever since the national park got involved with the sea cucumber fishery,
13:54there has been tension between them and the fishermen.
13:57They've even received death threats to their icon, Lonesome George.
14:11The national park authorities and other conservation bodies
14:14are more concerned with the welfare of the animals than the people.
14:17That's the claim of the leaders of the local fishing cooperatives.
14:47To try and address this, the national park hosts regular meetings with the fishermen
14:52to discuss how to manage the marine environment,
14:55how to provide for the fishermen yet still uphold the ban on sea cucumber collecting.
15:01There's much talk of finding alternative employment for the fishermen.
15:05Titi Rendon is head of the Santa Cruz Fishing Cooperative.
15:09They've been offering us alternative employment every year.
15:18We, as the fishing sector, accept that.
15:21We want alternative employment so that the resources can be recovered.
15:28But the alternatives don't really come to light.
15:32Everything stays in promise, everything stays on paper.
15:36One of the problems for both the park and the fishing cooperative
15:39is enforcing the regulations so that the marine life can recover.
16:07The fisheries have collapsed here in Galapagos
16:10because of the bad controls, the bad management.
16:13Having decimated the lobster and sea cucumber fisheries,
16:16some fishermen, with no alternative employment available,
16:20are now turning their attention to another lucrative catch.
16:23Sharks are being targeted, butchered for their fins.
16:37There are worrying parallels with the sea cucumber boom.
16:44The shark fins are sold for vast sums to the Far East,
16:52where they're used to thicken ceremonial soup.
16:55This is strictly illegal.
16:58Galapagos has one of the best set of laws to protect marine life in the world,
17:02but these laws simply can't be enforced.
17:05So, just as it was with the sea cucumbers,
17:08it's grab what you can before it's gone.
17:29Shark numbers are already in decline.
17:32It's been predicted the sharks of Galapagos
17:34will have all but disappeared in 10 years.
17:44Removing these top predators is also damaging
17:47one of the world's most spectacular underwater ecosystems.
17:52There are likely to be knock-on effects right through the food chain.
18:00It's not just the damage to marine life
18:03that is a cause for concern.
18:07The Galapagos Islands are regularly voted the best dive destination in the world.
18:17For all the underwater wonders, there's one star attraction.
18:21Every diver dreams of seeing live sharks.
18:32Diving is the fastest-growing sector of the largest industry in the Galapagos,
18:37tourism.
18:42Killing one of tourism's top attractions is undermining the very industry
18:46that could provide employment for out-of-work fishermen.
18:51It's very much in the interests of the tourist sector
18:54to limit the damage being done by the fishermen.
18:58One of the biggest dive operations is owned by Herbert Frey.
19:29Whether all those involved can be persuaded to abandon shark finning
19:34in favour of a new life in tourism remains to be seen.
19:58What's certain is the tourist sector is well aware of the need
20:01for better protection of the wildlife it depends on.
20:05As core celeb for the conservation movement,
20:08Lonesome George has been embraced by a tourism industry
20:12keen to show its support for the protection of the wildlife.
20:16Almost every tourist shop sells souvenirs bearing his image and his name.
20:21Lonesome George has achieved celebrity status.
20:27He's on the itinerary of every single visitor
20:30and is presented as living proof of what can go wrong
20:33when humans invade this fragile paradise.
20:41But not one tourist will ever visit his homeland, Pinta Island.
20:46It's off-limits. In fact, it's so little visited
20:50that for a long time hope survived that there might be more tortoises
20:54hiding on the island, and with good reason.
20:58A few years after the discovery of Lonesome George,
21:01this shell was found by scientists visiting Pinta.
21:05The shell beside me here is of great interest because this is a Pinta tortoise
21:10and it's an empty shell but it's with scutes on and these scutes fall off
21:14when the animal's been dead for a few months or a year or so.
21:17So when that animal was collected and brought into this controlled environment,
21:21it hadn't been dead for probably more than a year.
21:24And it was found on Pinta two or three years after Lonesome George was found.
21:29So there was more poking around there.
21:36Peter Pritchard planned a final and exhaustive search of Pinta
21:40in the hope that more tortoises were hiding on the wild and remote island.
21:47So this was a systematic transecting of the vegetated parts of Pinta.
21:55But they found no sign of a living tortoise.
22:00We found 15 skeletons of tortoises, none killed by man as far as we could tell.
22:08They were all in deep ravines from which the tortoises fell in and could not escape.
22:13And the bones were lying there in the bottom of the ravine.
22:18The crew was not used to gathering bones.
22:22It's not part of their standard marching orders.
22:25But I said, look fellas, this is Pinta.
22:27No one else is making any more of these things.
22:30We've got to gather these bones up.
22:32And we rounded up everything from used plastic food bags to my underwear
22:37to whatever else you could find to parcel these things up.
22:41And we got them back here.
22:43And they're boxed up in the reference collections of the knowledge station now.
22:50There was something strange about these bones.
22:53All but one of the 15 skeletons were from male tortoises.
22:57It seems that the final blow to the Pinta tortoise was a lack of females.
23:04Exactly what happened on Pinta Island
23:07that led to the disappearance of the female tortoises will never be known.
23:12It happened a long time ago.
23:14The animals in the ravines were old ones.
23:16They had walked around 100 years before they fell into that ravine
23:19and died in the bottom of it.
23:21And sometimes we would find skeletons of three animals mixed in one ravine.
23:26So it's a damn odd way to go extinct
23:30by masculinisation and falling into potholes.
23:34It's not the normal pattern.
23:36But I think it's what happened on Pinta.
23:44Lonesome George may never have met a female tortoise on Pinta.
23:48Now any hope of introducing him to one has gone
23:52and with it the chance of baby Pinta tortoises.
23:56But there's no reason he shouldn't enjoy other female company
24:00and, the next best thing, perhaps father their offspring.
24:26He always follows them, chases them.
24:31But he wants to be alone in the food area.
24:40He's a big eater and he wants to take advantage of the food alone.
24:47Lonesome's lack of interest in his female companions
24:51has sparked a lot of comment in the outside world.
24:56There have been rumours he doesn't really know what to do.
25:02It has even been suggested that perhaps George is gay.
25:06But maybe all he needs is a helping hand.
25:14Graciela Cervello was approached by an official of the National Park
25:18with a special assignment.
25:26I said, yes, why not?
25:28But I didn't know what I had to do.
25:30So she said, well, I'll explain what you have to do.
25:35You have to have a relationship with Lonesome George.
25:38I thought it was very funny.
25:40I said, yes, that's fine.
25:43So she said, well, what we want is sperm
25:46because that's what's needed for a job
25:50that I don't think is being done yet.
25:53The hope was if they could collect sperm and freeze it,
25:56one of the females could be artificially inseminated.
26:24I would touch him and we would talk.
26:27I would tell him my problems, my sorrows.
26:32And I would say to him,
26:34come on, George, can you give me a little bit of...
26:39be closer, right?
26:43A little bit closer.
26:45And I would get closer and he would look at me like that.
26:48Yes, he had the tail of my hand and I touched that part.
27:02I love it. It's beautiful.
27:18It's a beautiful conclusion.
27:20Decades ago, and without anyone really noticing,
27:24the Pinta Island tortoise passed the point of no return.
27:30But for a miracle, when Lonesome George dies,
27:34his race dies with him.
27:49I would feel like, at least here in the corral,
27:54I would feel an emptiness.
27:58An emptiness as if there was nothing left.
28:02That's how I would feel.
28:05It may be too late to save the Pinta tortoise,
28:08but in the corral next door to Lonesome
28:10are tortoises that were rescued in the nick of time.
28:15These tortoises were also the last of their kind.
28:21They're the only ones found by an extensive search of Española
28:25in the Pinta Island.
28:27Their fate would have been the same as Lonesome George,
28:30but for the fact there are 15 of them,
28:33three males and 12 females.
28:40For such ponderous animals,
28:42they can be remarkably difficult to find.
28:47The Pinta Island tortoise is one of the most
28:50important species of tortoise in the world.
28:54For such ponderous animals, they can be remarkably frisky.
29:01They're also remarkably fertile.
29:04If mating is successful,
29:06a female tortoise will dig a hole in the ground
29:09and lay up to 20 eggs.
29:15Fausto is not only caretaker of Lonesome George,
29:19but also head of this captive breeding programme,
29:22and he and his team have achieved spectacular success.
29:36These three-month-old babies will be fed and sheltered
29:40under Fausto's watchful eye
29:42until big and strong enough to fend for themselves.
29:47The plan is then to return them to their native Española island.
29:53Following this success,
29:55tortoise breeding programmes were established
29:58for other tortoise populations on other islands.
30:03Isabela Island is by far the largest in Galapagos.
30:07It has five distinct tortoise populations on five volcanoes.
30:12This central volcano is home to the largest population
30:16in the archipelago.
30:18They number several thousand animals.
30:23Because they live at these inaccessible heights,
30:26they escaped the ravages of the 18th and 19th century sailors.
30:32The tortoise population is the largest in the archipelago.
30:36The two southern populations didn't fare so well.
30:43Incidents of illegal tortoise hunting and eating still occur today.
30:49It's thought this is the work of disgruntled fishermen,
30:52sending a grisly message to the national park.
30:56A new breeding centre was established by the national park
31:00to rescue the two southern populations of Isabela tortoises.
31:08Oscar Carvajal runs the breeding programme.
31:11Though troubled by the continued lack of tortoise population,
31:15he's determined to find a solution.
31:19Oscar Carvajal runs the breeding programme.
31:23Though troubled by the continuing hunting,
31:26Oscar is concerned by a more insidious danger facing the tortoises,
31:30another legacy of man's arrival on these once pristine islands.
31:48Goats are perfectly adapted to the arid Galapagos climate.
31:52They'll feed on almost anything
31:55and have an incredible capacity to reproduce.
31:58Introduce a few animals onto an island
32:01and after a few years,
32:03they'll be able to feed on almost anything.
32:06They'll be able to feed on almost anything
32:09and have an incredible capacity to reproduce.
32:12Goats are perfectly adapted to the arid Galapagos climate.
32:15Introduce a few animals onto an island
32:18and after a few years, there will be several thousand.
32:27Goats are the biggest threat to tortoises on most of the islands,
32:31including Isabela.
32:33They strip the vegetation bare,
32:36leaving nothing for the tortoises to eat.
32:40Giant tortoises evolved in the absence of mammals
32:44as the principal herbivore on the Galapagos islands.
32:48They simply cannot compete with the fleet-footed,
32:51rapidly reproducing goats.
32:54The National Park decided this severe problem needed a radical solution.
33:09Goat-infested islands
33:24Helicopters and sharpshooters flown in from New Zealand
33:28patrolled 400,000 hectares of goat-infested island,
33:32a landscape demuted by the insatiable pests.
33:40Goats
33:54There were 100,000 goats on northern Isabela alone.
33:58Now there are none.
34:00It's the first time such a large-scale mammal eradication project
34:04has achieved such success.
34:09They told us it was impossible,
34:12that nowhere in the world has this been achieved.
34:17The best achievement the Isabela project has achieved
34:21is to have removed the imminent threat
34:25to 65% of the native and endemic species of northern Isabela
34:34by the presence of the goats there alone.
34:38Among that percentage of endemic species
34:41there is the largest population of land turtles.
34:46I don't think anyone can deny
34:48that it is an incalculable value to have that.
34:53The value of goat eradication is certainly not lost on Fausto.
34:58The latest generation of offspring,
35:00from the 15 Española tortoises rescued from the wild,
35:04are almost ready for release onto their native island.
35:09They are weighed and measured
35:11and will then be quarantined for two months.
35:14Their return to Española will be timed to coincide with the rainy season,
35:19to ensure there is vegetation for them to eat.
35:28Española is a small, uninhabited and sparsely vegetated island
35:32in the south of the archipelago.
35:37This island, like Isabela, was once overrun with goats, but not anymore.
35:42The island's small size made the goat cull here
35:46a much easier prospect than on Isabela.
35:49The last goat was shot in 1978
35:52and since then Fausto has been bringing baby tortoises back to Española.
36:03Here is a tortoise.
36:07We are in the places where they are released.
36:12This tortoise is one of the first groups
36:16that were repatriated here to Española.
36:20We have to look for the places where they find their appropriate places
36:27to make their nests.
36:35They are already reproducing the first groups that were brought here.
36:42We found about 15 nests about three years ago
36:46and small tortoises as well.
36:51We don't take them anymore, we leave the young here.
36:55As long as they survive.
37:25There are many things that are harder to pinpoint and deal with
37:28that affect not just tortoises, but all the endemic species.
37:32They arise from the very source that some have hailed
37:35as the salvation of the animals of the Galapagos.
37:43Three planes a day fly in from the mainland.
37:49Visitors from all around the world arrive
37:52to see for themselves the remarkably tame wildlife
37:55in this apparently pristine archipelago.
37:59But the endless stream of people
38:01has brought to an end the island's isolation.
38:04The isolation that was for so long
38:06the Galapagos wildlife's best protection from human disturbance.
38:12The tourists could be endangering the wildlife they've come to see.
38:17The endemic animals have evolved largely free from competition or disease.
38:23This leaves them especially vulnerable to any germs
38:26the visitors might be inadvertently carrying.
38:34Giant tortoises have been dying from a type of influenza
38:38similar to that found in humans.
38:42Verna Cedeño is head of a new genetics lab
38:46set up in Galapagos to help with conservation,
38:49identifying potential biological threats to the wildlife
38:53and seeking solutions.
38:59The tortoise has to be immobilised before its health check.
39:11This tortoise is one of a population living in the highlands of Santa Cruz
39:16the island with the highest human population
39:19and greatest number of visiting tourists.
39:22So far, the tortoise numbers are not being seriously affected by the virus.
39:28This monitoring is to make sure the situation doesn't get any worse.
39:35But the threat from disease is a serious one.
39:41In relation to pathogenic agents introduced in a place where they are not naturally present.
39:49A disease can make a species, an organism, a group of individuals
39:55not only be affected, but disappear.
39:58So the issue of disease is a very important issue for conservation.
40:12Although the tortoises of Santa Cruz may be safeguarded for now,
40:16very worrying results are coming to light
40:19in studies of another iconic Galapagan creature.
40:27Darwin's finches, so named because they are said to have inspired
40:31the great naturalist's theory of evolution,
40:34are a group of 13 species of birds endemic to the islands.
40:38Each species has a unique role within the island's ecology.
40:48Sarah Huber has been investigating a population of these birds
40:52in the highlands of Santa Cruz, above the main town of Puerto Ayora.
41:00She has uncovered a potential disaster.
41:04These maggots are the larvae of a parasitic fly.
41:07They literally eat the nestlings alive.
41:11As you get more and more parasites, their feeding holes become bigger
41:14and you actually get these large holes in the body cavity.
41:17If the parasite is prevalent throughout the entire island
41:21and you see rates of mortality like this on the entire island,
41:25then chances of extinction are very high.
41:28These Darwin's finches, famous for bringing the idea of evolution to life,
41:32are following lonesome George down the road to extinction.
41:37The parasite, I guess, came from mainland Ecuador.
41:40Nobody really knows how it got over.
41:43Speculations are that it came with food or on a boat or an airplane.
41:48It's not known how it got to Ecuador.
41:51It's not known how it got to Puerto Ayora.
41:54Speculations are that it came with food or on a boat or an airplane.
42:01The port of Puerto Ayora, capital of the tourism industry,
42:05is constantly buzzing with activity.
42:10Every day, boats are bringing goods from the mainland to provide for the tourists
42:15and all the people who work in the tourist industry.
42:19Every boat carries the risk of alien species hiding among the cartons of fruit and veg,
42:24and the flow of goods is only set to increase.
42:30Tourism in Galapagos is growing by 10% every year.
42:37The sleepy fishing town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela,
42:41former centre of the sea cucumber fishery,
42:44is already preparing for a fresh economic boom.
42:49A new airport will be receiving flights directly from the mainland by the end of the year.
42:57The islanders are busy getting ready for a flood of visitors.
43:01New hotels and restaurants are going up all over town.
43:08The boom in tourism is driving a boom in immigration.
43:13The resident population of Galapagos is increasing by 6% every year.
43:18After all, tourism has made these islands one of Ecuador's richest provinces.
43:42It's like Guayaquil, you're going from one place to another,
43:45you don't know when they're going to rob you.
43:48But in Galapagos, you can go without any problems.
43:53For me, everything has been great.
43:56I've worked and I'm fine.
44:01But once here, the immigrants also feel the pressure of so many people.
44:06There are other problems on the big screen.
44:10Well, you could say it's immigration.
44:15So many people have come, so many new people have come here.
44:20So Galapagos has totally changed.
44:27Puerto Ayora is rapidly filling every corner of space set aside for the town by the national park.
44:35The buildings are going up to house people drawn in from the mainland
44:39to fill jobs created by the ever-expanding tourism industry.
44:44Tourism, and consequently population growth, is spiraling out of control.
44:50If we continue to allow an increase in the number of tourists,
44:54we will not be able to survive.
44:58Tourism is not an ally of conservation at the moment.
45:03Tourism has been subsidized by conservation.
45:08And tourism, in the way we are doing it,
45:12will lead to the collapse of Galapagos as a human society
45:16and as a unique ecosystem in the world.
45:19That is an undeniable fact and we all have to work
45:24to break this economic system that has been imposed by the tourism model we have.
45:33One thing is for sure, tourism is here to stay.
45:37To limit the risk of introducing alien species and disease,
45:41there need to be major changes to the way tourism is managed and supported.
45:45The flood of imports to feed the tourists, for example, needs to be minimized.
45:50And that means food self-sufficiency.
45:54There is little established agriculture on Galapagos.
45:57A large acreage of the verdant highlands was cleared by early settlers
46:01before the national park was created.
46:04But this was just for cattle.
46:08Now these pastures hold the potential for a self-sustainable archipelago,
46:13if the problems of growing vegetables organically in these soils can be ironed out.
46:20The organization Fundar Galapagos aims to promote new ways of life for the islanders.
46:28This is the first step to achieve food self-sustainability.
46:36It is a farm of 80 hectares and the concept is to carry out research
46:42to show more appropriate production technologies
46:47to the ranchers of this island, of Santa Cruz,
46:50and then of Isabela, and of San Cristobal, and of Floriana.
46:54It has a double benefit.
46:56It benefits the quality of life of the farmers in Galapagos
46:59and it also benefits the conservation processes
47:02because it reduces the risk of the introduction of new species
47:06that become the main threat to the environment of Galapagos.
47:12Self-sufficiency would clearly reduce the volume of imports,
47:16but it requires the acceptance of fewer exotic goods by the local people,
47:20especially by the streamer new arrivals
47:22who don't all appreciate the need to live within sustainable limits.
47:26Immigration is being driven by a demand for skilled labor.
47:50A new generation of local residents need to be better qualified for a life in tourism
47:55if the influx of outsiders is to be stemmed.
47:58One initiative is this cookery class established in the town's largest school.
48:03The project is run by chef Pablo Guerrero from one of the larger hotels.
48:21There is a major social problem here in Galapagos
48:25due to the huge unemployment of the local residents.
48:29We want to give these residents the necessary tools
48:33and certify them so that they can occupy the jobs
48:36that are now being occupied by the people who live on the continent.
48:40The idea is not simply to teach the students haute cuisine,
48:44but to give them a better understanding of why this place they live in is so special
48:49and why there needs to be restrictions in place to preserve the islands.
49:20There are many ways an educated and enlightened generation of Galapagans
49:24could contribute to the protection of their islands.
49:28Verna Cedeño regularly invites school classes into her genetics laboratory
49:33to give them an insight into conservation work within Galapagos.
49:49They will be in more contact with the animals,
49:52with the problems they may have, with the diseases.
49:55They will be more involved in the conservation of the islands.
49:59If we have young local researchers interested in conserving,
50:04that will have a much stronger effect
50:07than if there are always people from outside the place working on that,
50:13because it is still something strange.
50:16A new generation of native islanders,
50:19who appreciate conservation and the need to live sustainably,
50:23who reject the mentality of take what you can without regard for the future,
50:28surely offer the best hope for the preservation of these islands.
50:45All the schools and colleges in Galapagos have that feeling.
50:50The mentality of frontier is changing.
50:54Now we think that Galapagos belongs to us, that it is ours.
50:59And only when we have that feeling that this is ours,
51:03is when we will be able to impose those limits and those restrictions
51:10because we will be taking care of what is ours.
51:16We believe that Galapagos is one of the places in the world
51:20that still gives us that possibility of having a different society
51:25that lives in harmony with itself and with its natural environment.
51:33Galapagos is a model, an experiment, a representative sample.
51:41And it is not only a biological laboratory,
51:44but it is also a political, social, economic, governability laboratory.
51:51So maybe Galapagos can show the rest of the world
51:55an option of a path to follow.
52:04The problem is us, not the other animals.
52:11They are the beings that destroy everything that God has created for us.
52:15So that is where we should aim.
52:18As scientists, we should say, well, let's prepare this group of fishermen.
52:23Let's give them a good education,
52:26so that tomorrow, the day after, their children
52:29don't have the same problem that they have in fishing.
52:33Let's give them help.
52:35But as I say, the solution is in the human being.
53:05Galapagos is the largest archipelago in the world,
53:08but it no longer enjoys the isolation that both shaped and preserved it.
53:13It remains a global treasure, a unique Garden of Eden.
53:17But a greater understanding of its fragility is needed
53:21if its beauty and innocence is to be sustained.
53:30The alternative is staring us in the face.
53:33Lonesome George is an ever-present reminder
53:36of the vulnerability of Galapagos wildlife.
53:39Even though Lonesome was saved,
53:42the Pinta tortoise is effectively extinct.
53:45But that's not the end of the story for Pinta Island.
53:49The National Park hoped to return it to the condition that existed
53:53before the first humans set foot there.
53:56Central to this ambition, and right next door to Lonesome,
54:00are the Española tortoises.
54:03Genetic studies have revealed they are the closest relation to Lonesome George,
54:08making Española tortoises the most likely ancestors of those on Pinta.
54:13But the two islands are at opposite ends of the archipelago,
54:17which begs the question, how did the ancestors of Lonesome George
54:21make it from Española all the way to Pinta?
54:24It's probably 150 miles away, I wouldn't be surprised.
54:29But if you look at the sweep of the Humboldt current coming up South America
54:34and through the archipelago, it sort of washes around Española
54:38and carries on up to Pinta.
54:41So the tortoise wouldn't need to do any cross-current dynamic swimming.
54:48It would just need to accidentally fall in the sea
54:52and survive a week or two of bobbing around like a cork in the ocean.
54:56Because the same shell and the same thick skin that allow this animal to survive
55:02where you and I would die of thirst in two days, keeps the seawater out.
55:06And the other good thing is they have long necks.
55:10So a normal tortoise would probably find its head underwater most of the time
55:15if it was floating at sea.
55:18But these have a little periscope-like head.
55:22They just have to have the luck and the lottery of life to wash up on Pinta.
55:37Fausto is returning to Pinta Island for the first time in 30 years.
55:44He's accompanied by a team of National Park rangers and their hunting dogs.
55:49They're here to check that the island is free of goats.
55:54The National Park officials are considering a plan to put Española tortoises onto Pinta Island.
56:12Pinta is one of the remotest and least visited islands in the Galapagos.
56:17Nobody has ever lived here and tourists are forbidden from visiting these shores.
56:25It remains one of the most untouched islands in an archipelago itself heralded as the most pristine in the world.
56:35The only major disturbances have been the slaughter of the tortoises
56:39and the introduction of three goats in the 50s.
56:42Their 40,000 descendants were eradicated 20 years later by Fausto and a team of rangers.
57:13Now that the goats have gone, the island has no large herbivores,
57:18the role that was once fulfilled by the ancestors of Lonesome George.
57:24Thinking ecologically, you might want to ask,
57:26what is the role of the goats?
57:28The goats are the main source of food for the island.
57:31They are the main source of food for the island.
57:34They are the main source of food for the island.
57:37They are the main source of food for the island.
57:40Thinking ecologically, you might want to put Espanola tortoises on Pinta
57:44just to make the ecology complete
57:47and possibly even repeat the evolutionary experiment
57:50that led from Espanola to Pinta tortoises at some fairly remote time in the past.
57:56Give it another try.
57:58See if the island shapes some of the same way.
58:11Coming up next tonight here on BBC4 Drama
58:14and another crime conundrum for Valanda.
58:40.