Sea Lions

Sea Lions are very common both on the more remote islands and in the populated areas as well.  Three percent of the entire archipelago is set aside for people to inhabit.  Sea lions can be found lounging about on rocks and in the surf bobbing above and below the surface for fish to eat.  They are often on the beaches and make their ways onto the boardwalks in the tourist areas.  Their favorite activity seems to be sunning themselves and napping.  The smaller ones usually stay close to the mother.  One time I was walking on the beach in the bright sun without sunglasses watching my feet and I walked right up on a baby sea lion nursing. The baby looked up at me with a face of outrage for interrupting and the mother yawed at me in anger.  As long as the mother did not attack me I was fine with that.  I kept walking.  It occurred to me that they form something like acceptable beach bum communities. 

Another animal that is common in the Galápagos is the penguin.  They can be seen on rocks in groups or alone.  They feed on fish and can dart around in the water very fast.  I saw one swimming on the surface one day close to the others and it looked like a duck.

The Galápagos Tortoise

One of the main attractions of the Galápagos Islands are the giant tortoises.  Just so you know, a tortoise lives on land and a turtle lives partly in the water.  Shortly after arrival on the first day our tour group was escorted from the airport to the Darwin Research Station in the southern end of Isla Santa Cruz.  There we saw most of the salient creatures of the islands and were given information on the conservation efforts of the park rangers.  The Galápagos tortoise has been divided into six breeds and one of them is almost extinct.  Lonesome George, the last of the Galápagos "Pinta tortoises" lives at the Darwin Research Station.  He is accompanied by two females of a different but similar breed in hopes that he will mate.  I got a few pictures of him but he looks depressed so I won't share them here. He is nearly 100 years old as well!  The other turtles serve as better examples.  The Shape of the shell is the distinguishing factor between the different breeds.  The tortoises with shells allowing them to reach for vegetation at higher levels with their necks are considered more evolved.  Before humans came to Galápagos the underbrush of the islands was filled with the giant tortoises.  The first settlers centered their diet on the soft meat of the tortoise and this brought down their numbers quickly.  Now there is a big effort to repopulate the islands with them hatching the young from the various breeding centers. 

I went to the breeding center on Isla Isabela one day to see the tortoises feed in the morning.  Often times they don't move around much and this was an opportunity to see them in action. 

Sierra Negra

After touring the islands on a yacht called Estrella Del Mar (Sea Star) for three days I left the tour group and stayed on Isla Isabela.  This is the largest island in the archipelago but it has the smallest population.  This is partly due to the active volcano called Sierra Negra that causes problems every so often.  Climbing the southern rim of the crater is one of the main tourist attractions.  The crater has been formed over millions of years by the lava flow from countless eruptions.  The Galápagos archipelago is in fact a volcanic formation, big piles of lava rock jutting out of the sea.  In the picture above the mouth of the volcanic eruption is in the upper left.  The lava comes down and fills the valley and raises the temperature in the crater and the surrounding area immensely.  The last eruption was in 2005.  I hiked up the volcano with four other people, each of a different nationality.  The guide was Ecuadorian from Isla Isabela.  Then there was a Korean man who was fluent in Spanish but spoke poor English.  There was a girl from Sweden and another young man from Switzerland.  We were blessed with beautiful weather and a clear view of the entire crater.  On the way up we saw butterflies of various kinds and a bird called the vermilion fly eater, which is endangered.  Below is the vermilion fly eater.

The Blue Footed Boobie

The blue footed boobie is a very tame bird.  It evolved on the islands without natural predators and thus does not fear humans.  I was able to walk right near the boobies without them acting up.  They sit around a lot and make nests and do strange mating dances.  Sometimes they make a whooping noise to attract their mate.  They can often be seen in pairs.  I was told by the guide that the brighter blue their feet are the more attractive they are to their mate.  Some of them have more blackish feet.  There are also red footed boobies that act very similar.  It was on the small island of South Seymour where we saw most of the blue footed boobies.

Marine Iguanas

Marine iguanas are one of a few different kinds of lizards prevalent on the Galápagos Islands. There are also land iguanas and a smaller type of lizard called the lava lizard. The Marine iguana sort of has a humanesque head. Their skin is all black and of course they are a dangerous wild animal. Their tail serves as their main weapon, but they have sharp claws and a fierce bite to back it up. Like most of the animals on the islands they are fairly tame but it is prohibited to touch or interfere with them. This is how the islands are kept clean and natural. I went to an island with a bunch of marine iguanas living on sharp lava rock and took pictures. There were also small penguins living on this islet and in one area where there were mangroves and a small patch of sand there were sea lions sunning themselves. I made sure and took lots of pictures. The marine iguana lives on land but can swim underwater for up to an hour. They eat seaweed from the seafloor. I wanted to see what they look like swimming underwater but I didn't get the chance. I did however swim with sea turtles off the coast of the island of Genovesa. Other people on the tour had underwater cameras but I didn't so I wasn't able to take any pictures. They are very placid animals and you can swim right next to them.

Land iguanas as opposed to marine iguanas do not swim into the water, but rather stay on land and keep a diet of fresh vegetation and insects. They will eat small rodents as well, making them omnivorous. The way to tell a land iguana from a marine iguana is that a land iguana will always have some yellow skin on its body whereas a marine iguana will be all black. In Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela, there were iguana crossings marked on the roadsides. Quite often you would see the iguanas, sometimes very large, crossing the road in a line. Of course the wildlife is very precious and the guides or whoever I was riding with would slow down and maneuver around the passing iguana.

Sometimes you can find them clumped together in a group sunning themselves out in the open, whether it be on a rock or a wooden bridge.  As you approach them they will scatter slightly.  If you stop they will stop.  They will move away proportionately to the amount that you move towards them, meaning that if you move a bit, they move a bit.  This can be kind of fun, but you have to remember that even the babies can whip you with their tail and bite you.  I did happen to see one swimming on the surface of the sea one day by the black lava rocks on the beach near town.It wasn't what I wanted though, I wanted to see it swimming underwater like a fish. 

Here is a picture of the most humanesque iguana I encountered.  This head is perhaps in line with Darwin's theory that all species evolved from the same single celled organism.  I think the head is like that of a hominid, one of the early cave man tribes from hundreds of thousands of years ago.