Tortoises to the rescue
Giant tortoises have rescued the ecology of a tropical island devastated by deforestation.
British scientists took the giant Aldabra tortoise, Aldabrachelys gigantea, to the Ile aux Aigrettes, off Mauritius, to disperse ebony tree seeds, which had been done by a native tortoise which is now extinct.
Intensive logging until the early 1980s decimated the ebony forest which once covered the island.
Now new ebony seedlings are widely established.