Tag: stymied

After trudging upslope for weeks, a giant tortoise slows its hundreds of cumbersome kilograms to a stop. Dense woods defended by barbed wire–like blackberry bushes block its path. After a brief foray into the painful prickles, the tortoise backs out and plods on, searching for a way out of the woods.

These blackberry-lined forests of Spanish cedar trees (Cedrela odorata) are invasive in the tortoise’s island home in the Galápagos. If they can, these titanic turtles stay clear