Fig 1.
Study site area in Santa Cruz Island.
The transect lines of this study are indicated with dotted lines (….) and correspond to the two transect phases. First transect phase (t1, t2, t3, t4) and second transect phase (t1, t2, t3, t5, t6, t7, t8). Santa Cruz shape file and rural area is reprinted from the Census of Agricultural Production Units under a CC BY license, with permission from the Consejo de Gobierno del Régimen Especial de Galapagos (CGREG), original copyright 2014.
Fig 2.
Research methodological framework during the two research phases.
Italics indicate the method used to collect data.
Fig 3.
Stratified random sample of study area for socio-economic questionnaires.
(A) Completed questionnaires (n = 53). (B) Landowners reporting giant tortoises entering farms (n = 41). (C) Landowners reporting damages to fences (n = 16). (D) Landowners reporting damages to crops (n = 9). Santa Cruz shape file and rural area plots of land is reprinted from the Census of Agricultural Production Units under a CC BY license, with permission from the Consejo de Gobierno del Régimen Especial de Galapagos (CGREG), origin al copyright 2014.
Fig 4.
Main characteristics of the sampled farms.
Animal plagues are fire ants (Solenopsis geminata and Wasmannia auropunctata) and rats (Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus); whereas plant plagues are blackberry (Rubus spp.), guayava (Psidium guajava), elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and sauco (Cestrum auriculatum). (*) Indicates a variety of grown banana cultivars (e.g. guinean, green bananas, plantain). Frequency refers to the absolute number of farmers reporting the respective characteritics over the total sample (N = 102).
Table 1.
Summary of the significant (*) and non-significant (n.s.) relation between the variables.
Table 2.
Results of the binomial logistic regression predicting the likelihood of taking an action on giant tortoises.
Table 3.
Sample characteristics of the socio-economic valuation in the rural area of Santa Cruz Island (n = 53).
Fig 5.
Main crop types and other farming activities as established during the socio-economic valuation questionnaire.
Total sample n = 53. (*) Indicates a variety of grown banana cultivars (e.g. Guinean, green bananas, plantain) and (‡) a variety of citrus (e.g. oranges, lemons, mandarins).
Fig 6.
Example of fences that allow or avoid the entrance of giant tortoises in the farmlands.
(A) Barbed wire fence at > 15cm from the ground allowing the entrance of giant tortoises. (B) Tin roof and rocks obstructing fence. (C) Porotillo and barbed wire obstructing fence. (D) Porotillo obstructing ‘live fence’.
Table 4.
Estimated tortoise density for both sets of transects, expressed as number of individuals per km2.