On a recent visit of our director, Gustavo Vallejo, to the Galapagos Islands, Felipe Cruz, technical director of the Project Isabela, explained to him about this ambitious project.

Isabela Island (458,812 ha) constitutes more than half of the land area of the archipelago and contains a higher concentration of endemic species than any other island in Galapagos (40% of endemic vertebrates and 66% of endemic plants). Many of these populations are currently seriously endangered.

Goats are not a native species in the Galapagos Islands. They were abandoned in former centuries by whaler floats to ensure a fresh meat supply in the islands, and later introduced by local colonizers as livestock. Northern Isabela remained free of goats until mid 1970. It is unknown how goats arrived in this area, they may have crossed the Perry Isthmus from south Isabela during a specially rainy year, or may have escaped from fishing boats which used to keep goats livestock on board. In 1997 it was estimated (by air and ground studies) that there were between 100,000 and 150,000 individuals in north Isabela, in an area of around 250,000 km2. The large herds of goats are very damaging. They cause unprecedented levels of erosion, eliminate the vegetation cover, displace the fauna from their feeding sites, and destroy the biodiversity.





The organization of a large-scale eradication demands plenty support, considerably financial resources and high skills. Only in the last two years have the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation been able to coordinate the necessary elements required to initiate this effort.
About 70% of the Isabela Project has been funded by GEF. The rest of the funding is responsibility of the Ecuadorian government and the fund raising activities of the Charles Darwin Foundation.

Project Isabela has four phases: Where density of goats is high, they are eliminated by aerial hunting by helicopter. Once density has been reduced, goats are to be hunted on land by experienced hunting teams helped by especially trained dogs. Once the number of goats has been significantly reduced, the “Judas Goat” technique will be applied. It consists of setting radio collars on at least 600 goats, which are freed on several strategic places in the island. As goats are naturally gregarious, individuals with collars will look for remaining herds thus, by radio tracking, leading the hunters to their objectives. The last phase is that of monitoring, to ensure that the eradication has been complete.
In 2004, under the GEF Project ECU-00-G31, aerial hunting of goats in northern Isabela was begun. With a total of 796 flying hours devoted to aerial hunting up to this date, we can say that the situation in the north of the island is as follows: 66% of northern Isabela is at Judas goat level, 29% has low goat population densities (increaed flying time is now required to locate animals), 5% has medium population densities and requires further aerial hunting. The aim for the end of 2005 is to declare no rthern Isabela free of goats and donkeys.

Source: Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation

Article © by This is Ecuador Magazine  Order your monthly copy of This is Ecuador