About this photo:

As you may know, Galapagos means tortoise. After the islands were discovered, the population of these giants was reduced dramatically by pirates and whalers. Extrapolations from records of some whaling voyages indicates that the whalers took hundreds of thousands of these tortoises for food. The animals could survive for months without food or water, making them ideal for long sea voyages.

Perhaps even worse, the pirates let goats loose on some of the islands, so they would have some to kill when they returned for provisions. The goats eat the same food as the tortoises, and they are much more efficient. Today, scientists are attempting to restore the tortoise population using two techniques: captive breeding, and hunting the goats. Jim and Linda are posed beside one of the captive breeders at the Charles Darwin Research Station.

A recent goat hunt in one volcano crater on a single island killed 100,000 feral goats.