Abstract
The remarkable discoveries made by Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands are now reviewed by a new generation of hardy bird-watchers who trace his steps. No place for the typical tourist, the Galapagos Islands reward rugged adventurists with an ornithologist's paradise. Because of centuries of isolation and strict control by Ecuadorian government, many birds are almost as tame as a pet budgie, and all the usual activities of birds are undisturbed by the presence of human visitors.
The Galapagos Islands are located on the equator, about 700 miles due west of South America. There are around twenty islands in the archipelago, only a few of them with human inhabitants. Because of their isolation for millenia, the wildlife has developed into rare and interesting forms, including unique flora, mammals, reptiles, insect and marine life. It was this isolation that provided the foundation for Darwin's great insight, The Origin of Species. After more than a century, it is still widely read. He noted that there were thirteen species of finches that had apparently developed from a single source, adapting in each case to a different environment. He concluded that the best adapted individuals were able most successfully to reproduce themselves, hence the next generation was the outcome of only the individuals well suited to changing conditions, and this in time produced distinct species. The survival of the fittest, he called it.
These finches can still be seen on the islands. More detailed treatment of them will appear in a subsequent Watcbbird article.
The assortment of birds extant on the islands is formidable-one hundred thirty-eight species sighted in thirty-eight genera, ranging from a tiny finch to a six-foot-span Albatross. Although most are indigenous and many are unique, there are a few species that range elsewhere, as well. My first vermillion flycatcher I saw on Fernandina Island, but the species ranges from southwestern United States to Chile.
Researchers are still exploring the finches. Would Darwin's contemporaries have believed him if he had reported a vampire finch? It was not known until 1963 that the sharpbeaked ground finch (Geospiza dificilis) feeds on drops of blood extracted from moulting feathers of the boobies and other larger birds.
Each human visitor brings a different set of expectations, but few are not fulfilled by the broad spread of bird life. Being islands, seabirds dominate the scene, from the unbelievably anthropomorphic penguins-like little bell-hops awaiting your pleasure-to the displaying frigate bird males, with inflated ruby-throated pouches the size of a large grapefruit.
There is never a moment when there is not a bird in sight. There will be an albatross, a frigate bird or a swallowtailedgull playing the air currents aloft, a red-footed or blue-footed booby sitting on the shore, a pelican skimming the waves, a smaller bird working the shrubs ashore, a hawk soaring above the landscape, or a mockingbird delivering his familiar aria from a tree top. Flightless cormorants and doves are common, and with reasonably good timing the visitor encounters herons, egrets, oystercatchers, gallinules, cuckoos, tropic birds, and several other finches.
The Galapagos ("Gah-LAH-pahgose") Islands constitute an extremely carefully controlled national park of Ecuador. No one is permitted to set foot ashore without an accompanying licensed guide. These guides are well trained naturalists who take a course of preparation and have to pass reexaminations periodically. They come from various nations and speak numerous languages. The guide for my group was Bill Hendricks, from Seattle, and the companion group had a multilingual Belgian, Michel Kaisin.
To serve the public, the Ecuadorian government permits various tour operators to schedule groups to visit the Galapagos. Normally, this means that the group lives aboard a ship, cruises from island to island and goes ashore. The islands have not been "improved" to fit tourists' convenience. A "wet landing" means that you get out of a small boat and wade ashore. A '' dry landing" may involve leaping from a pitching lifeboat onto a rocky ledge. On one island we had to crawl cautiously along a path ten inches wide carved into a stone cliff.
Once on the island, paths are marked by stakes and no one is permitted to stray. The environment is extremely fragile and every precaution is taken to avoid tampering. Each visitor is given a plastic sack to hang around the neck, and all debris (film boxes, Kleenex, etc.) must be returned to the ship. No smoking is permitted, so wildlife will not fear fires nor will they swallow filters. Before returning to the lifeboat, shoes are rinsed in the ocean to avoid carrying contamination from island to island.
Although birds have been the focus of this article, there are fascinating crustaceans, reptiles, and mammals to be seen also. Surely the most colorful crabs in the world speckle the black rocks along the waterline. Iguanas are common, and on some sunny banks will number scores of thousands. Sea lions are in every cove. All wildlife is perfectly fearless. For conservation reasons, touching wildlife is a no-no, but the wildlife do not know this and would permit it. A dose-up portrait of a calm sea lion and her pup at a distance of three feet is simple to manage.
To an exotic-aviculturist, the experience is a rare venture in the joys of aviculture combined with the rewards of nature in its most free state. I have been trying (without success) to breed a Peruvian species similar to the Geospizinae of the Galapagos. It was a thrill and a revelation to encounter their global nests with underside entrance in the wild, and I came home with ideas as to how to encourage nest building.
Because there are almost no natural enemies on the islands and human beings have rarely visited, the birds welcome visitors. Fearless, they go about everyday activities unabashedly.