Critically Endangered
Western Santa Cruz tortoise
Chelonoidis porteri
The western Santa Cruz tortoise (Chelonoidis niger porteri) is a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise endemic to Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos.
The tortoise
Western Santa Cruz tortoise is a tortoise in the family Testudinidae — Chelonoidis porteri.
Range and habitat
The western Santa Cruz tortoise (Chelonoidis niger porteri) is a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise endemic to Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos. MtDNA evidence shows that there are actually three genetically distinct populations on Santa Cruz Island. In 2015, the small, eastern Cerro Fatal population of the island was described as a distinct subspecies, C. N. Donfaustoi, most closely related to chathamensis (and forming a clade with it plus abingdoni and hoodensis), while the main southwestern porteri population was found to be closer to the Floreana and southern Isabela tortoises.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
There are approximately 3400 individuals in the wild, and have seen rising numbers in population, despite being critically endangered.
Western Santa Cruz tortoise is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Western Santa Cruz tortoise, Wikidata item Q2462851. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
