Baby Tortoise on Galapagos Island

[Catherine]

Baby tortoises have been seen on that island for the first time in 100 years!
Humans introduced rats that ate the eggs and hatchlings and almost wiped out the whole species.
Efforts to remove the rats have paid off and now at last there are babies.

http://thedo.do/1GotcHQ

These beautiful creatures now have a chance to survive.

[Tobi]

I am very fond of Tortoises, and am glad to hear this news. It seems that whenever humans 'conquered' a place, or moved in there (usually for profit or gain of some kind) -illness, and sometimes eventual extinction came in their wake.
The rats may have come from ships....?

There are instances of whole tribes of indigenous people being wiped out by influenza/colds brought by foreigners. Of course, these people had no immunity.

[Catherine]

The rats were from ships. People did not think about the impact of their arrival on an island. Rats nearly wiped out the tortoises. On other islands people brought cats and wiped out parrots and other bird species.
It seems that everything we do involves fixing mistakes that previous generations have made. I am just glad that this time things could be fixed.