The Galapagos Islands are best known for their unique collection of wildlife and for the observations naturalist Charles Darwin made while visiting the archipelago in the 1830s.
Location of the Galapagos Islands
The Galapagos Islands are located off the coast of Ecuador in the South Pacific Ocean. The Galapagos encompass 36,000 square miles and are made up of 16 islands and many more islets. Each of the major islands has a shield volcano, and the Galapagos are among the most active oceanic volcano areas on the planet.
Most scientists believe the Galapagos Islands were never connected to one of Earth's major continents by a land bridge, making the wildlife that inhabit this place even more extraordinary.
Galapagos Islands Mammals
As is the case with most isolated islands, there aren't many mammals on the Galapagos. Those mammals that do call the Galapagos home had to work to reach their destination. There are rice rats on the islands, and scientists figure the rats must have first arrived there by floating across the ocean on debris and vegetation. Two species of bats also inhabit the Galapagos — red bats and hoary bats, whose ancestors most likely flew many hundreds of miles to reach their current home. And the last two mammals that live on the Galapagos Islands had to have swum there — the Galapagos fur seal and Galapagos sea lions.
Galapagos Islands Birds
Darwin's most significant discovery while visiting the Galapagos Islands centered on finches, which is why they are now known as Darwin's finches. Darwin discovered many new species of finches — there are 14 that are endemic to the Galapagos Islands — that looked and behaved different from their cousins, both on the islands and in other parts of the world, and postulated that, given the isolation, they must have descended from a single ancestral form but evolved to survive in the Galapagos. More recently, scientists have used DNA studies to confirm Darwin's conclusion, suggesting that the evolution of different finches in the Galapagos Islands was largely driven by diet.
There are many other birds that live on the Galapagos Islands; among them are the world's only flightless cormorants, Galapagos penguins, which are the only penguins in the world to live in warm, equatorial waters, the waved albatross, booby and the frigatebird, a relative of the pelican whose males have a red pouch on their breast that they inflate to attract mates during breeding season.
Galapagos Islands Reptiles
The reptiles that are endemic to the Galapagos Islands are among the most fascinating creatures in the world. The giant tortoise, or Galapagos tortoise — which is the animal that gives the island chain its name — grows up to four feet in length, can weigh more than 600 pounds and can live for up to 150 years.
Another animal that has evolved to life on the islands is the marine iguana, the world's only water-dwelling lizard. Male marine iguanas reach lengths of more than five feet and sport reddish and teal-green colors during breeding season. But the most amazing fact about these animals is that they live in and around the ocean waters, spending most of their time on the rocky shoreline or in the water, diving as deep as 50 feet to feed on seaweed.
There are land iguanas on the Galapagos, too, as well as lava lizards and green sea turtles, which nest on the islands' sandy beaches.
Galapagos Islands Travel
These animals and more draw thousands of tourists each year, in addition to biologists and other scientists who study the wildlife regularly. There are also a handful of conservation efforts that seek volunteers to help with preservation efforts.
Adam Sparks - Adam Sparks has been a reporter, copy editor and designer during a 14-year newspaper career that has taken him from Oregon to Hawaii and ...
