Every Other Indian Ocean Giant Tortoise Is Gone

1840

The giant tortoises of Mauritius, Rodrigues, Réunion and the granitic Seychelles were eaten out by passing crews who stacked them alive in the hold as fresh meat that kept for months without food or water. By about 1840 all of them were extinct except the Aldabra population, which survived for one reason: the atoll was murderously hard to land on.