158 utrotade sköldpaddor har släppts ut på Galápagos

The Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger), also known as the Charles Island giant tortoise, is a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise endemic to the Galápagos archipelago in the equatorial eastern Pacific Ocean. The specific epithet niger (‘black’) probably refers to the colouration of the holotype specimen. The species name has often been misspelled as nigra, an error introduced in the 1980s when Chelonoidis was elevated to genus and mistakenly treated as feminine, an error recognized and fixed in 2017. In 2012, hybrids of the subspecies with Chelonoidis becki were discovered on Isabela Island. Since then, back breeding has been used to recreate the original subspecies and help it regain its genetic purity. As of 2025, 400 tortoises have been hatched in captivity on Santa Cruz Island. However, the IUCN has yet to update the subspecies' status due to lack of a genetically pure specimen at the time of the 2017 evaluation.