GALAPAGOS SEA
Slaughter goats to save the exotic Galapagos tortoises, says Julian Fitter, chairperson of the newly constituted Galapagos Conservation Trust. The cluster of islands in the Galapagos Sea survives on its tortoise- smitten tourism industry. But goats, breeding in their thousands every year on Mount Alcedo, are destroying the cloud forest that is home to the largest of the giant tortoises. So they have to be culled, much like the Australian kangaroo, "for the islands have only 5 years to deal with the problem," warns Fitter. Elaborate plans are in the offing. Experts from New Zealand have pitched in to help bio) and, according to reports, helicopter ships are being summoned to strafe the vast goat population.
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