Cerro Azul giant tortoise
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Superfamily: Testudinoidea
Family: Testudinidae
Genus: Chelonoidis
Species:
C. niger
Subspecies:
C. n. vicina
Trinomial name
Chelonoidis niger vicina
(Günther, 1875)
Synonyms
  • Testudo vicina Günther, 1875
  • Geochelone nigra vicina (Günther 1875)
  • Testudo microphyes Günther, 1875
  • Testudo guentheri Baur, 1889
  • Testudo macrophyes Garman, 1917
  • Testudo vandenburghi De Sola, 1930

Chelonoidis niger vicina, commonly known as the Cerro Azul giant tortoise, Iguana Cove tortoise or the Isabela Island giant tortoise, is a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise endemic to Isabela Island in the Galápagos.[1]

Population history

This population was depleted by seamen in the last 200 years and by extensive slaughter in the late 1950s and 1960s by employees of cattle companies based at Iguana Cove. Their population is thought to overlap with Chelonoidis niger guentheri.

Chelonoidis vicina at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island

Description

It has a thick, heavy shell intermediate between saddle-backed and domed, and not appreciably narrowed anteriorly. Males are larger and more saddle-backed; females are more domed. Until eradication programs, virtually all nests and hatchlings were destroyed by black rats, pigs, dogs, and cats.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Cayot, L.J.; Gibbs, J.P.; Tapia, W.; Caccone, A. (2018). "Chelonoidis vicina". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T9028A144765855. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T9028A144765855.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ↑ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. ↑ MacFarland 1974a. The galapagos giant tortoises (Geochelone elephantopus). I. Status of the surviving populations. Biological Conservation. 6(2):118–133
  • Günther, 1875 : Descriptions of the living and extinct races of gigantic land–tortoises. Parts I and II. Introduction, and the tortoises of the Galapagos Islands. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol. 165, p. 251–284.
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