Miscellaneous
This week, it's all about the goats of the Galapagos Islands. When 3 goats were introduced to the Galapagos in the year 1959, the whole ecosystem was rattled. In less than 40 years, the population of goats had risen over 100,000. Plant life was being wiped out by the goats which caused the other animals who ate the vegetation to also dwindle. The whole ecosystem was threatened by the presence of the goats. That is when Project Isabela came into the picture. The goats had to be removed from the island, one way or another. This meant a massive extermination project was in the works. Teams of hunters were trained, and the project was underway. We talk about how this project came to be, how the hunters were trained, and the secret weapon the hunters used to finish the project: the Judas Goat.Sources; https://www.galapagos.org/conservation/our-work/ecosystem-restoration/project-isabela/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/onward/2014/09/02/on-the-galapagos-the-betrayal-of-judas-goats/#closehttps://modernfarmer.com/2013/09/killing-goats-galapagos/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092746/https://www.galapagos.org/conservation/our-work/tortoise-restoration/restoring-existing-populations/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ab2a/256e768a06a6ec41e2b89589b565e97cc090.pdf