Today, we’re continuing our theme week Good Things That Happened in 2021. In May 2021, scientists rediscovered a lost species of Galapagos tortoise! Here’s what happened: in 2019, rangers from the Galapagos National Park discovered a single female tortoise on Fernandina Island, a species that was previously thought to have been extinct! A Fernandina Island Galapagos Tortoise hadn’t been spotted since 1906. The female tortoise, named Fern by her discoverers, was transferred to a breeding center on nearby Santa Cruz Island, for conservation and genetic testing. In May of 2021, scientists finally got the news they were hoping for – genetic tests confirmed that Fern was indeed a Fernandina Island Galapagos Tortoise! She’s thought to be around 100 years old – but since Galapagos tortoises can live to be 200, Fern has plenty of time to hopefully help her species recover. Additional expeditions to Fernandina Island are planned to try to locate other members of the same species.