Aussie News - Issue 23 - December 2006
The Voyage of the Tortoises
On 30 October 2006 a ten year project was realised when nearly 300 tortoises were released on the island of Rodrigues, where they have been absent for over 200 years. The project was the brainchild of Australian environmentalist Owen Griffiths. Dr Kristy Cook went along for the journey and presents her account of this historic release.
The historic sail of the tortoises from their home in South-eastern Mauritius, 560 kilometres east to the sister island of Rodrigues, began on a cool, rainy Saturday morning in late October, 2006. Legs and claws flailed from the domed backs of the ancient reptiles as they were carefully bedded down in shallow crates, clearly marked, “Caution. Live Animals.”
Owen Griffiths and the McConville family
with the tortoises in the breeding pens.
Most people associate giant tortoises with the Galapagos, but Indian Ocean islands also harbour these gentle giants. However, unlike the Galapagos, to their historic misfortune, the water-bound homes of the these tortoises, in particular, those on the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Reunion, and Rodrigues, lay smack dab in the centre of one of the world’s most travelled early shipping routes.
Mascarene tortoises were launched on sea-faring voyages for over 200 years, following their discovery at the end of the 16th Century. None of those who left the islands returned. In fact, none survived. By 1802, the extinction of the Geochelone species of Rodrigues was final, and their Mauritian and Reunion cousins disappeared soon after. The only tortoises escaping this decimation roamed about on a useless, far flung island of the Seychelles called Aldabra.
The tortoises crated at their breeding reserve in Mauritius for the historic repopulation of Rodrigues are the “grandchildren” of what are sometimes called “Darwin’s tortoises”. In the late 1880s, when Charles Darwin recognized that the giant tortoises of the Indian Ocean were almost all extinct, he, and a half-dozen of his colleagues, addressed a letter to Hon. Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, Governor and Chief of Mauritius, advocating the translocation of Aldabra tortoises to other Mascarene islands. Fortunately, for the tortoises travelling to Rodrigues, the letter was successful.
The visionary of this historic voyage, Owen Griffiths, is a lean Australian naturalist-scientist who has made Mauritius his home. He has a passion to repopulate islands, particularly Mauritius and Rodrigues, with their native flora and fauna. The tortoises are a key species. Owen developed a successful tortoise breeding program for “Darwin’s progeny" at La Reserve des Mascareignes, a tourist venture cum animal and reptile reserve. Owen is relieved to set sail with the tortoises: the pressure is off at the reserve, and he can begin the breeding program on Rodrigues.
In addition to the Chief Guest, Chief Commissioner Johnston Roussety, Ian McConville, the Australian High Commissioner, and his family were present for the release of the tortoises into their new habitat. The High Commission, supportive of environmental endeavours on several Indian Ocean islands, is proud that an Australian is behind such a successful project. Gerard Oakes, Second Secretary, following a muddy climb through one of the natural caves where the tortoises will roam, was enthusiastic about the potential of the project.
Along with approximately 290 tortoises, up to seven years old, which were released into quarantine enclosures, six adult tortoises, each crate requiring six or seven men, were set marching off into their natural stone enclosure. A giant tortoise inspires awe. The tropic birds whirled above, diving in and out above the backs of the preternatural creatures, and the rolling limestone plains of tortoise land could be seen over the backs of their knobby shells. For one brief whiff of ocean breeze, it was possible to imagine what the island looked like five hundred years ago.
Tortoises have returned to Rodrigues, testament to man’s will to restore what he has destroyed.