Charles Darwin wrote about the harvesting of the species of tortoise found only on Floreana Island, which was exterminated within 15 years of his visit to the Galápagos in 1835. But a group of international scientists who collected 1,700 blood samples from tortoises on Isabela Island farther north during a research expedition in 2012 made a surprising discovery: 80 had genetic traces of the lost species. This discovery prompted the Galapagos National Park, together with the Galapagos Conservancy, to sponsor an expedition in 2015 to look for genetic relatives of the extinct species of tortoises and to launch a breeding program aimed at restoring them to their native islands. “But we will have a tortoise population with many of the same genes as the original.”

Scientists believe sailors who caught Floreana tortoises for food sometimes dropped them off on Isabel Island in order to lighten a ship’s load before crossing the ocean. The discovery of DNA links or 'high ancestry' to extinct Floreana species of giant tortoise means the mega-herbivore could one day be returned to the island for repatriation via a captive-breeding program – perhaps within the next five years.
Scientists hope to revive the extinct Floreana island tortoise using a 'genetically-informed' captive breeding program with the tortoises closest ancestors.