Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world.

They enthralled sailors. They inspired Darwin. Then, by the mid 19th-century, the iconic Floreana tortoise was gone. Here’s how a group of persistent scientists unlocked the secrets to bringing them ...

What do you think of when you hear the word “tortoise”? The giant tortoises that lumber along like tanks over the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean? The gopher ...

PHILADELPHIA — Sixteen critically endangered western Santa Cruz tortoises born to some very old parents got a slow walk and the red carpet treatment Wednesday at a Philadelphia Zoo event to show off ...