Founded in 1959 at the centennial celebration of Darwin’s Origin of Species publication, this station houses an international team of scientists that study the biology and conservation of the Galapagos Islands.
The station conducts a captive breeding program for giant tortoises, and we’ll see the hatchlings of several subspecies that have been brought back from near-extinction.Up until a few years ago, the Charles Darwin Station was home to the last survivor of the Pinta island subspecies of giant tortoise--nicknamed Lonesome George by the scientists. He was their last hope to bring back the subspecies distinctive for their "saddleback shells" from near extinction, but despite all encouragement, he was not willing to reproduce and died on June 24, 2012.
Today, ecologists and biologists alike are hopeful that they will be able to bring the Pinta tortoises back. They have found a population of tortoises with some Pinta Island DNA, and believe that by clever cross-breeding, they will be able to create a species with 95% of the original Pinta tortoises genetic content.
The Research Station is still home to many other species of tortoise that are fascinating to watch. These tortoises are not present in any other place in the world.offshore.