Galapagos Islands
Galapagos wildlife
The Galapagos have never been connected with the continent. Gradually over, many hundreds of thousands of years, animals and plants from over sea developed there and as time went by they adapted themselves to Galapagos conditions and came to differ more and more from their continental ancestors.
Charles Darwin recognized this speciation within the archipelago, when he visited the Galapagos on the Beagle in 1835 and his observations played a substantial part in his formulation of the Theory of Evolution. Since no large land mammals reached the islands, reptiles were dominant just as they had been all over the world in the very distant past. Another of the extraordinary features of the islands is the tameness of the animals. The islands were uninhabited when they were discovered in 1535 and the animals still have little instinctive fear of man.
The most spectacular species to be seen by the visitor are the giant tortoises, marine iguanas, land iguanas, Galapagos albatrosses, Galapagos Hawks, Red footed, Blue footed and Masked boobies, red-billed tropic-birds, frigate birds, swallow tailled gulls, dusky lava gulls, flightless cormorants, mocking birds, 13 species of Darwin's finches all endemic, Galapagos sea lions, Galapagos fur seals.
Although the number of species on the islands is relatively small compared to that of the mainland, nowhere else in the world can you see such wild animals at such close range. Because of their lack of natural predators, most animals are literally fearless of human visitors.
The Galapagos wildlife are completely unafraid of human visitors. And for this reason the number of visitors allowed each year is limited in an effort to protect the fragile environmental and ecological balance.
The Galapagos Islands tour is an inspirational mixture of pure wilderness and fascinating wildlife. continues...
Galapagos » Wildlife
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Galapagos wildlife, reptiles
The reptiles are easily approached and observed in Galapagos. Over two dozen species...
