Tortoises retire after saving their species

QUITO, Ecuador－A group of giant tortoises who have lived in captivity for decades and helped rescue their species from the brink of extinction were released into the wild in the Galapagos Islands on Monday.

The tortoises were bred in captivity to repopulate the islands after their numbers in the wild went down to just 15 individuals, said Danny Rueda, the park director. There are now more than 2,000 of them on Espanola Island, he said.

The giant tortoises are known for their long, leathery necks and life spans of over 100 years. Virtually synonymous with the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, they were one of the species that helped Charles Darwin form his theory of evolution in the 19th century.