Washington Tapia

• PhD
• CEO at Biodiversa Consultores

Galapagos Giant Tortoises brings together researchers and conservationists to share the most up-to-date knowledge of Galapagos giant tortoises. Despite being icons of the world-famous Galapagos Archipelago and the target of more than 50 years of conservation research and management, Galapagos giant tortoise evolution and much of their ecology remai...

Re-establishment of ecosystem engineers via introduction of replacement species is increasingly being proposed to facilitate ecosystem restoration of island ecosystems around the world, yet attendant challenges and risks remain largely unknown. We evaluate the first phase (2015–2020) of a program to restore a population of giant tortoises, ecosyste...

This chapter provides an up-to-date accounting of the 15 Galapagos giant tortoise species (Chelonoidis spp.), including information about each taxon’s current distribution, abundance, threats, conservation, and status. Some 50,000 records of giant tortoises encountered in the course of field surveys of tortoise populations over the last 58 years ar...

We highlight the smuggling of Galápagos iguanas in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific region. Wild caught Galapagos iguanas are laundered into international trade declared as captive-bred. The offspring of such animals receive CITES permits in violation of CITES regulations. We urge CITES Parties to transfer all four species of Galápagos iguanas...

Chelonians (turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles) grow scute keratin in sequential layers over time. Once formed, scute keratin acts as an inert reservoir of environmental information. For chelonians inhabiting areas with legacy or modern nuclear activities, their scute has the potential to act as a time-stamped record of radionuclide contamination...

Chelonian scute samples examined as time stamps of radionuclide contamination for modern 20th century nuclear activity in surrounding environments.

The Galápagos pink land iguana (Conolophus marthae) is categorised as Critically Endangered. The entire distribution of pink iguanas is within the protected area of the Galápagos National Park (GNP), which is managed by the Galápagos National Park Directorate (GNPD). This conservation and management plan (2022–2027) has the vision to ensure the lon...

Trophic rewilding is increasingly being used to promote megafauna reintroductions to island ecosystems, yet ecosystem response to population restoration once megafauna reintroduction occurs remains understudied. In this study of a population of Galapagos giant tortoises reintroduced to an arid island, tortoise exclosures monitored over an 8‐year‐lo...

Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) is a cause for global concern as pressure stemming from IWT threatens wild species and can even lead to extinction. Galapagos giant tortoises (Chelonoidis sp.) are a group of threatened species protected under CITES, which forbids their import–export for international trade; however, IWT of this group persists. In this...

A consequence of over 400 years of human exploitation of Galápagos tortoises (Chelonoidis niger ssp.) is the extinction of several subspecies and the decimation of others. As humans captured, killed, and/or removed tortoises for food, oil, museums, and zoos, they also colonized the archipelago resulting in the introduction of invasive plants, anima...

Captive breeding programs benefit from genetic analyses that identify relatedness between individuals, assign parentage to offspring, and track levels of genetic diversity. Monitoring these parameters across breeding cycles is critical to the success of a captive breeding program as it allows conservation managers to iteratively evaluate and adjust...

The status of the Fernandina Island Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus) has been a mystery, with the species known from a single specimen collected in 1906. The discovery in 2019 of a female tortoise living on the island provided the opportunity to determine if the species lives on. By sequencing the genomes of both individuals and...

The Galapagos Archipelago is recognized as a natural laboratory for studying evolutionary processes. San Cristóbal was one of the first islands colonized by tortoises, which radiated from there across the archipelago to inhabit 10 islands. Here, we sequenced the mitochondrial control region from six historical giant tortoises from San Cristóbal (fi...

Background Declines of large-bodied herbivorous reptiles are well documented, but the consequences for ecosystem function are not. Understanding how large-bodied herbivorous reptiles engineer ecosystems is relevant given the current interest in restoration of tropical islands where extinction rates are disproportionately high and reptiles are promi...

This chapter recaps the information provided throughout the volume—Galapagos Giant Tortoises—highlighting the history, taxonomy, biology, and conservation of these iconic reptiles. Following the summary of the book, a framework for prioritizing future conservation efforts is presented. The chapter ends with a vision of Galapagos tortoise population...

This chapter focuses on the program to restore a population of giant tortoises on Santa Fe Island. During the program’s first phase (2015–20), a total of 551 juvenile and 34 subadult tortoises of the Española Island species (Chelonoidis hoodensis) were translocated to Santa Fe Island. High annual survival rates of juvenile tortoises resulted in 503...

A major step in the development of conservation measures would be to study and understand the sources of non-natural mortality in wild fauna. The implementation of such measures should be a priority in oceanic islands because biodiversity hotspots are concentrated in these locations. Furthermore, anthropogenic changes have a greater impact on islan...

A major step in the development of conservation measures would be to study and understand the sources of non-natural mortality in wild fauna. The implementation of such measures should be a priority in oceanic islands because biodiversity hotspots are concentrated in these locations. Furthermore, anthropogenic changes have a greater impact on islan...

Galapagos Verde 2050 (GV2050) is a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary project of the CDF which actively contributes to the conservation of the natural capital of the Galapagos archipelago and the well-being of its human population. GV2050 works to restore ecosystems and promote sustainable agricultural practices that allow the community to l...

Galápagos Verde 2050 (GV2050) es un proyecto multinstitucional e interdisciplinario de la FCD que contribuye activamente a la conservación del capital natural del archipiélago Galápagos y al buen vivir de la población humana local. GV2050 trabaja para recuperar la capacidad de los ecosistemas de generar servicios y promueve prácticas agrícolas sost...

Description of two new species of geckos from Isabela Island. Arteaga, Bustamante, Vieira, Tapia and Guayasamin, 2019.

Conservation translocation projects must carefully balance multiple, potentially competing objectives (e.g. population viability, retention of genetic diversity, delivery of key ecological services) against conflicting stakeholder values and severe time and cost constraints. Advanced decision support tools would facilitate identifying practical sol...

We documented the consequences of large-scale habitat loss on a community of Galápagos native bird species on San Cristóbal island, based on point counts conducted between 2010 and 2017. Surprisingly, despite considerable habitat change and a variety of other threats, the landbirds of San Cristóbal have fared much better than on the neighbouring is...

This article attempts to explain why Opuntia megasperma var. orientalis is now rare on Española Island, Galapagos. We give a detailed description of the principal components of the island ecosystem that could have interacted, from the past to the present, and could have shaped the stages of ecological succession, resulting in the present rarity of...

Hybridization poses a major challenge for species conservation because it threatens both genetic integrity and adaptive potential. Yet, hybridization can occasionally offer unprecedented opportunity for species recovery if the genome of an extinct taxon is present among living hybrids such that selective breeding could recapture it. We explored the...

Giant tortoises are among the longest-lived vertebrate animals and, as such, provide an excellent model to study traits like longevity and age-related diseases. However, genomic and molecular evolutionary information on giant tortoises is scarce. Here, we describe a global analysis of the genomes of Lonesome George—the iconic last member of Chelono...

El género Darwiniothamnus (Asteraceae) es endémico de Galápagos y comprende dos especies: D. lancifolius y D. tenuifolius, derivadas de una sola colonización a las islas por un ancestro de la región de Chile1. Las tres subespecies descritas de D. lancifolius se limitan a las islas Fernandina e Isabela, mientras que la margarita de Darwin (D. tenuif...

Según la literatura y el conocimiento de algunos antiguos colonos, el lechoso estaba distribuido únicamente en la zona entre El Garrapatero, El Cascajo y la costa este de la Estación Científica Charles Darwin (ECCD), abarcando inclusive el área sobre la que ahora se asienta Puerto Ayora. En 2007 quedaban solo 60 plantas en el área cercana a la term...

Lecocarpus es una especie seriamente amenazada y fue afectada en el pasado por la presencia de cabras asilvestradas en las islas Galápagos. Por eso, en algunas localidades están protegidas con cercados, pero su distribución es tan restringida que urge desarrollar un plan de recuperación.

El cactus gigante Opuntia megasperma incluye tres variedades, ubicadas en las islas Floreana, San Cristóbal y Española; de estas, O. megasperma var. orientalis se encuentra solo en Española y en los islotes cercanos: Gardner, Osborn, Xarifa (Tortuga) y Oeste. De acuerdo con los criterios de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturale...

Population genetic theory related to the consequences of rapid population decline is well‐developed, but there are very few empirical studies where sampling was conducted before and after a known bottleneck event. Such knowledge is of particular importance for species restoration, given links between genetic diversity and the probability of long‐te...

Genome-wide assessments allow for fuller characterization of genetic diversity, finer-scale population delineation, and better detection of demographically significant units to guide conservation compared to those based on "traditional" markers. Galapagos giant tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) have long provided a case study for how evolutionary geneti...

La iguana rosada (Conolophus marthae) se encuentra en el volcán Wolf en la isla Isabela. Se estima que su población comprende entre 350 y 400 individuos adultos (Tapia, obs. pers.). Además, de la baja densidad poblacional, existen varios problemas que amenazan la existencia de esta especie: una distribución extremadamente restringida en un volcán a...

El género Conolophus es endémico de Galápagos, por lo tanto, la iguana terrestre de Santa Fe (C. pallidus), al igual que las otras dos especies de iguanas terrestres del archipiélago, es endémica, pero además lo es para la isla Santa Fe. Actualmente, se estima que su población es de 6 500 individuos y su densidad poblacional de 2,7 iguanas/ha1. Con...

Galápagos is one of the most pristine archipelagos in the world and its conservation relies upon research and sensible management. In recent decades both the interest in, and the needs of, the islands have increased, yet the funds and capacity for necessary research have remained limited. It has become, therefore, increasingly important to identify...

Empirical population genetic studies generally rely on sampling subsets of the population(s) of interest and of the nuclear or organellar genome targeted, assuming each are representative of the whole. Violations of these assumptions may impact population-level parameter estimation and lead to spurious inferences. Here we used targeted capture to s...

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

An aim of many captive breeding programs is to increase population sizes for reintroduction and establishment of self-sustaining wild populations. Genetic analyses play a critical role in these programs: monitoring genetic variation, identifying the origin of individuals, and assigning parentage to track family sizes. Here we use genetic pedigree a...

Galápagos is one of the most pristine archipelagos in the world and its conservation relies upon research and sensible management. In recent decades both the interest in, and the needs of, the Islands have increased, yet the funds and capacity for necessary research have remained limited. It has become, therefore, increasingly important to identify...

Galápagos is one of the most pristine archipelagos in the world and its conservation relies upon research and sensible management. In recent decades both the interest in, and the needs of, the islands have increased, yet the funds and capacity for necessary research have remained limited. It has become, therefore, increasingly important to identify...

Species are being lost at an unprecedented rate due to human-driven environmental changes. The cases in which species declared extinct can be revived are rare. However, here we report that a remote volcano in the Galápagos Islands hosts many giant tortoises with high ancestry from a species previously declared as extinct: Chelonoidis elephantopus o...

The “Galapagos Verde 2050” project intends to contribute to the conservation of Galapagos and the welfare (“Buen Vivir”) of the local population through the use and transfer of water-saving technologies for the restoration of degraded ecosystems and the development of sustainable agricultural protocols.

Species are being lost at an unprecedented rate due to human-driven environmental changes. The cases in which species declared extinct can be revived are rare. However, here we report that a remote volcano in the Galápagos Islands hosts many giant tortoises with high ancestry from a species previously declared as extinct: Chelonoidis elephantopus o...

Most otariids have colony-specific foraging areas during the breeding season, when they behave as central place foragers. However, they may disperse over broad areas after the breeding season and individuals from different colonies may share foraging grounds at that time. Here, stable isotope ratios in the skull bone of adult Galapagos sea lions (Z...

The Galápagos Pink Land Iguana ( Conolophus marthae , Fig. 15.1 ) was fi rst seen on Volcán Wolf (Isabela island) in 1986, when a group formed by Galápagos National Park rangers and technical personnel of the Charles Darwin Foundation accidentally encountered it during a fi eld trip to the remote northwestern slope of Volcán Wolf (Márquez et al. 20...

The taxonomy of giant Galapagos tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) is currently based primarily on morphological characters and island of origin. Over the last decade, compelling genetic evidence has accumulated for multiple independent evolutionary lineages, spurring the need for taxonomic revision. On the island of Santa Cruz there is currently a singl...

Galapagos Verde 2050 is a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary initiative that seeks to contribute to the sustainability of the Archipelago through ecological restoration and sustainable agriculture, while providing an example of effective sustainable development for the rest of the world (Jaramillo et al., 2014). The objectives of the project ar...

Critically endangered wildlife species typically require intensive management using a variety of in situ and ex situ approaches. Yet, despite broad application of ex situ conservation strategies, comparatively few programs incorporate genetic tools into management decisions and monitoring efforts. This is the case with the giant Galápagos tortoise...

En Galápagos, las especies invasoras constituyen la mayor amenaza para la biodiversidad terrestre (Gardener et al., 2010a y 2010b). Actualmente, hay alrededor de 900 especies de plantas introducidas de las cuales al menos 131 ya están invadiendo los espacios naturales del archipiélago (Guézou & Trueman, 2009; Jaramillo et al., 2013). Las zonas húme...

En general, la flora de las islas oceánicas tiene altos niveles de endemismo y se encuentra amenazada por especies invasoras que alteran sus hábitats. Esto se debe a que la superficie terrestre es limitada, el tamaño de las poblaciones tiende a ser reducido y por ende son más susceptibles a la extinción. La flora de Galápagos no es la excepción: el...

Currently in Galápagos there are about 900 introduced plant species: 229 (26%) are naturalized while 131 are invading natural areas, especially humid zones. These zones in inhabited islands have also been historically affected by the removal of native and endemic vegetation to establish agriculture and livestock. The combined result has produced t...

Long-term population history can influence the genetic effects of recent bottlenecks. Therefore, for threatened or endangered species, an understanding of the past is relevant when formulating conservation strategies. Levels of variation at neutral markers have been useful for estimating local effective population sizes (Ne) and inferring whether p...

AimWe re-examine the biogeography of the leaf-toed geckos (Phyllodactylus) endemic to the Galápagos Islands. Our aim was to (1) test the multiple-colonization hypothesis against the single-colonization scenario proposed for most terrestrial organisms in the archipelago, (2) estimate the age of colonization of Phyllodactylus, and (3) evaluate the ro...

Although Galápagos giant tortoises are an icon for both human-mediated biodiversity losses and conser-vation management successes, populations of two species on southern Isabela Island (Chelonoidis guntheri, and C. vicina) remain threatened by hunting and persistence of feral animals. Conservation management of these tortoises has been hampered by...

Restoration of extirpated species via captive breeding has typically relied on population viability as the primary criterion for evaluating success. This criterion is inadequate when species reintroduction is undertaken to restore ecological functions and interactions. Herein we report on the demographic and ecological outcomes of a five-decade-lon...

Although many classic radiations on islands are thought to be the result of repeated lineage splitting, the role of past fusion is rarely known because during these events, purebreds are rapidly replaced by a swarm of admixed individuals. Here we capture lineage fusion in action in a Galápagos giant tortoise species, Chelonoidis becki, from Wolf Vo...

ABSTRACT Aim In this study we re-examine the biogeography of leaf-toed geckos (Phyllodactylus) endemic to the Galapagos islands. We aim to (i) test the multiple colonization hypothesis against the single colonization scenario proposed for most organisms in the archipelago, (ii) estimate the age of colonization of Phyllodactylus, and (iii) evaluate...

This article is an analysis about what is necessary in order to walk to the Galapagos sustainability

Four species of iguanas occur in Galápagos. All of them are included in the red list of the IUCN (the International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and are protected under the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). In Ecuador, attempting to remove wildlife from the Galápagos Islands is a s...

Loss of key plant–animal interactions (e.g., disturbance, seed dispersal, and herbivory) due to extinctions of large herbivores has diminished ecosystem functioning nearly worldwide. Mitigating for the ecological consequences of large herbivore losses through the use of ecological replacements to fill extinct species’ niches and thereby replicate m...

A species of Galápagos tortoise endemic to Española Island was reduced to just 12 females and three males that have been bred in captivity since 1971 and have produced over 1700 offspring now repatriated to the island. Our molecular genetic analyses of juveniles repatriated to and surviving on the island indicate that none of the tortoises sampled...

AbstractA species of Galápagos tortoise endemic to Española Island was reduced to just 12 females and three males that have been bred in captivity since 1971 and have produced over 1700 offspring now repatriated to the island. Our molecular genetic analyses of juveniles repatriated to and surviving on the island indicate that none of the tortoises...

Seasonal migration has evolved in many taxa as a response to predictable spatial and temporal variation in the environment. Individual traits, physiology and social state interact with environmental factors to increase the complexity of migratory systems. Despite a huge body of research, the ultimate causes of migration remain unclear. A relatively...

Background/Question/Methods Loss of key plant-animal interactions (e.g., disturbance, seed dispersal, and nutrient cycling) due to large herbivore extinctions has diminished ecosystem functioning. Introduction of ecological analog species could provide mitigation but rarely are any candidate analog species a perfect match for the extinct form tar...

Genes from recently extinct species can live on in the genomes of extant individuals of mixed ancestry. Recently, genetic signatures of the giant Galápagos tortoise once endemic to Floreana Island (Chelonoidis elephantopus) were detected within eleven hybrid individuals of otherwise pure Chelonoidis becki on Volcano Wolf, Isabela Island [1 • Poula...

Among introduced species in the Galápagos are three species of geckos - Gonatodes caudiscutatus, Lepidodactylus lugubris, Phyllodactylus reissii - occurring on the islands of Isabela, San Cristóbal, and Santa Cruz. Here we report the first record of a fourth invasive species of gecko from Isabela, as well as the first record of P. reissii from the...

The distribution of the Galápagos land iguanas Conolophus subcristatus has been strongly affected by human activities in the last century. Previously widespread throughout the whole archipelago, today they inhabit only few islands, with populations often small and isolated. In this study, we analyzed the population genetic structure of land iguanas...

Lidocaine intrathecal anaesthesia was used to perform phallectomies in 15 hybrid Galapagos tortoises (Geochelone nigra) in a field setting as part of a conservation and ecosystem restoration project in the Galapagos Islands. The intrathecal injection was performed in the dorsal intercoccygeal region of the tail. Once the tail and hindlimbs were rel...

An endoscopic sterilisation technique for use in Galapagos tortoises (Geochelone nigra) was developed as part of a conservation and ecosystem restoration project. Fifteen female giant Galapagos tortoises were anaesthetised, intubated and positioned in dorsal recumbency. A bilateral prefemoral approach was made and the ovaries were identified using...

The presence of Vibrio isolates was investigated in cloacal swabs from the Galápagos marine iguana (Amblyrhyncus cristatus). Such unique iguana is endemic to the Galápagos Archipelago, it is listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List (2009), and is strictly protected by CITES and Ecuador laws. Our results revealed an uneven isolation frequency of vi...

Antibiotic resistance, evolving and spreading among bacterial pathogens, poses a serious threat to human health. Antibiotic use for clinical, veterinary and agricultural practices provides the major selective pressure for emergence and persistence of acquired resistance determinants. However, resistance has also been found in the absence of antibio...

Lineage identification of captive Galápagos tortoises of unknown ancestry based on mtDNA and microsatellite data. Individuals are listed according to the ex situ collection in which they currently reside with acronyms as in “Materials and Methods” in the text. Unknown tortoises are assigned to a population of origin based on the location of a share...