Upper row: Santa Cruz turtles in the wild
Lower row: Turtles at the Charles Darwin Research Center

Facts:
The most famous of the island endemic species, the giant tortoise is an amazing creature. There is only one species that is divided into 14 subspecies, roughly 1 subspecies per island. The tortoise eats the cactus and has adapted shell sizes and shapes based on the availability of the various cacti on their respective islands. The differences in the shell shapes played a vital role in shaping Darwin's thoughts on the evolution. Now, only some 15,000 remain in the islands, though that number is increasing based on the conservation work going on at the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island. Tortoises have an extremely slow metabolism that can allow then to live up to one year without food or water. Unfortunately, this trait led to their almost wholesale slaughter by visiting pirate and trading ships in the 1800's. The ships would stack hundreds of the creatures in their hulls and eat them while making the extremely long passage back to Europe. When competing for females, the males rise up on all fours, stick their necks out as far as they can -- the one that reaches the highest point is the winner... Now that's a contest I'd like to see implemented for humans as well!