Skip to main content
Advertise with the Morning Star
Giant tortoise on the menu
PETER FROST investigates the poaching and eating of century-old tortoises in the Galapagos Islands
Giant Galapagos tortoises can live for almost 200 years [Matthew Field/Creative Commons]

THOSE readers who ramble along with me most Fridays will know how much I love tortoises, turtles and terrapins. They are among my favourite, most interesting forms of wildlife.

Sadly the most famous of them — the 13 species of giant and aged tortoises of the various Galapagos Islands, 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador — are in the news at the moment. They are being caught and eaten, or sold for their delicious but very expensive meat.

These giant reptiles can live for nearly two centuries. Males weigh up to 500 pounds (227kg). Females only reach 250 pounds (113kg). 

Charles Darwin in a photograph probably taken in 1854
A giant tortoise munches watermelon at London Zoo
A buccaneer catching a sea turtle
Walter Rothschild rides a tortoise
A red-eared slider (Pic: Greg Hume/Creative Commons)
The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
(L to R) How many Aunties?, Back Hares Mount, Leeds, 1978; M
Photography / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025

Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds

The crowd at Manchester Punk Festival 2024
Culture / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
Literature / 25 March 2025
25 March 2025
JESSICA WIDNER explores how the twin themes of violence and love run through the novels of South Korean Nobel prize-winner Han Kang
GUILTY PARTIES: Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-1669), Syndics of t
Book Review / 4 February 2025
4 February 2025
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces