Santa Cruz Island

During our visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station we were able to see tortoises of different sizes and shapes, because not all Galapagos tortoises are the same. There was a corral where six males and one female are kept, different subspecies, all from different islands or volcanoes. With the Polaris guests' and staff we could see how the males differ from the female in many respects, such as size (he's big and she's small), he has a long tail, and she has a short tail. The male's shell has a concave-shaped underpart (called a plastron), whereas the female's shell has a flat or smooth plastron. However, sometimes we are very lucky, like during today's visit. We saw something that is very hard or difficult to see under normal situations. I'm referring to the male's sexual organ, normally kept inside the cloaca which is located towards the tip of the tail. During the mating process, the male mounts the female and wraps his tail around the shorter tail of the female, which brings the penis into contact with the cloaca of the female, and copulation can take place (sometimes lasting for hours). "We happened to be around when the penis of one male came into view. "