Galapagos Tortoises are among the most iconic animals in the world. Extremely rare, they exist naturally only on the ...

They are quite an astonishing sight with their huge domed shells, their big scaly legs and their oddly prehistoric faces. The giant tortoises aren’t the only natural wonders on Bird Island.

This story appears in the June 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine. The first time a tortoise walked through my hut at Middle Camp on Aldabra Atoll, I was amazed. I grabbed my camera and ...

Desert tortoises have lived in the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah since the Pleistocene. In the early years of the 20th century, they still thrived within the Southwest's arid ...