Once in a lifetime photo opportunities of unique wildlife were the subjects actually stay still !
Disadvantages:
Not a cheap trip
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
My Favourite Wildlife on the Galapagos Islands.
I decided I would write about the wildlife on these Islands as the wildlife on these islands is like nothing else to be found in the world.
Blue Footed Booby. We first encountered these birds at Punta Suarez on Espanola where there is quite a colony of them. The name Booby comes from the Spanish term “bobo” which means stupid fellow. They certainly look real silly when they dance during courtship and mating which we saw them do. The birds are mainly white feathered with blue feet. The male bird stomps his lovely blue feet trying to impress the female and whilst dancing spreading his wings and squawking at her. The female copied him, also squawking back so it was like watching a mirror image. I guess it was her way of saying “you’ve pulled mate!”
These birds are much bigger than your average gull on average being about 81 cm long (31 in) tall and weighs in around 1.5kg (3 lb).
These birds are just so comical to watch and we could have spent the whole afternoon watching them. Later on during the trip we watched these birds dive for fish and they are superb, hitting the water like missiles, again we spent a morning watching them diving for fish.
Waved Albatross We purposely timed our visit to coincide with the Waved Albatross coming ashore to lay eggs on Espanola. Albatross don’t build nests they just sit on the ground with the egg and during incubation the parents often roll the egg about! They sit at Punta Suarez (where we visited) or Punta Cevallos This is the only island they come ashore. We saw quite a few birds sitting, some on their own and some in pairs. These magnificent white birds have a wingspan of about 8 feet and weigh in around 9 lbs. They are about the size of a small feathered turkey, so much larger than the Booby. We watched them walk with a waddle and they looked most ungainly. Unfortunately we did not see any of their complex, noisy courtship rituals which are spectacular although we did see a couple of birds with their eggs. These birds mate for life. The colony on Punta Suarez is right on the cliff top edge enabling them to take flight by simply jumping off the cliff. I think these birds have the cutest face. I had always wanted to see an Albatross and I was not disappointed. These birds were considered endemic not only to the Galapagos, but to Espanola making them pretty special.
Marine Iguana We first saw marine Iguanas at Garner bay on Espanola but we saw them in larger groups at Punta Suarez and on quite a few other islands that we visited. Some were in heaps on the rocks around the islands. They certainly weren’t bothered by us. Their dark brown/orangey coloured bodies blend in very well with the lava rocks. They grow around approx 1.3m long and weigh up to 1.5kg. The size varies according to which island they live on. This vegetarian sea going Iguana grows to about 1m in length and is a very efficient swimmer. They also have long sharp claws in which to cling onto rocks several metres below the sea to eat algae. This takes some doing as the currents are very strong around the Galapagos Islands. As they are cold blooded animal, the marine iguana can only spend a limited time in the water as they can get cold and become unable to move effectively making it difficult to return to shore. When these Iguanas are not feeding they lay on the black rocks soaking up the equatorial sun where they squirt out the excess salt from nasal glands in jets. These Iguanas were so prehistoric looking and blended it so well with the rocks that I actually walked right past the first ones that I saw! They looked like they had almost been thrown on the rocks as they were literally in piles in some places. They certainly didn’t move for people.
Land Iguanas. These two species are endemic to the Galapagos Islands. These are the Galapagos land Iguana and the Santa Fe Land Iguana. The Galapagos Land Iguana we saw on a couple of Islands. They are yellow to dark brown or even black colouring which we found varied depending as to which Island they were on. The Santa Fe Land Iguana we saw on Santa Fe as this is the only place on earth you can see these. You can only see these on this Island. They are yellow to dark brown or even black colouring which we found varied depending as to which Island they were on. Its spines seem more pronounced on its back. We saw hybrids of Santa Fe X with the Land iguana on this island. These Iguanas’s grow to about 1m in length and have a wide body. They can weigh in anything up to 13 Kilograms and live for up to 60 years. The mainstay of their diets is the Prickly pear cactus which provides both food and water. The Iguanas both looked quite similar really. Neither were afraid of us and you could get next to them if they were on the track that you were allowed to walk on. I thought they were stunning and superb to photograph.
We also saw these Iguanas in the Charles Darwin Research Centre in Santa Cruz but I preferred to see them in the wild.
Giant Tortoise This creature is the emblem of the Galapagos Islands. The name Galapagos is derived from an old Spanish word referring to their saddle like shape. These creatures are so amazing and it was so sad to learn that around 100,000 were collected for food between 1500 & 1800.These tortoises were put in the hold of boats of whalers, pirate etc as they were at sea for months even years and because tortoises required no maintenance as they could go so long without food and and then be killed for their meat which could feed a crew for months. These tortoises can only be found on the Galapagos Islands or the Seychelles Islands
The tortoises were HUGE (they can weigh up to 270kg!!!!!) and I found it amazing just how much of a shift on these creatures had when they put their minds to it. Again we were able to get so close to them. There head and neck were the absolute image of ET and their legs almost remind me of elephant’s feet. We had great fun watching a tortoise eating several tree tomatos. We visited them in the Highlands of Santa Cruz` and at the Charles Darwin Research Station. At the CDRS we also saw “Lonesome George” who is the sole survivor of the species of the Pinta tortoise. He was found in 1972 among the foliage of Pinta Island and is estimated to be around 80 years. He is the rarest creature on earth.
Galapagos Penquin It is truly amazing to find Penquins near the Equator. The Galapagos Penquin is the only penquin to nest entirely in the tropics. One of the main problems this penquin has is keeping cool as being so close to the Equator temperatures easily reach over 100 degrees. They keep cool by hunting in the cold currents of the Cromwell. When on land they hold their flippers out over their feet which help the heat escape from their bodies and also stops their feet from getting sunburnt. These being the world’s third smallest penguin at around 30cm tall were not that big. We watched these on Santiago Island by cruising around close to the rocks on a panga.They had a really funny raucous, donkey like braying which is part of their courtship behaviour. They swim like lightening through the water.
Galapagos Sealion We saw loads of these. They lay lie sleeping dogs on most of the beaches where we landed and we just walked past them. They don’t move for you at all. We could see babies suckling their mums. We were told to look out for the “bachelor males as these could be aggressive if we went too near. You could easily spot these as these were much larger than the females ( sometimes weighing up to 250kg) and they had a massive thick neck and a” bump” on their large head. Some of the Islands we visited the males could be heard “barking”. The males are constantly challenged by other males and fights often occur and because the resident dominant male does not eat as he is busy looking after his harem he eventually becomes weak and another male wins his harem. When the males have served their time they go and live in a bachelor colony which we visited at South Plaza. Our guide told us you can tell if they are Sea Lions as they have ears! We loved the Sea Lions we did hope they would come in the sea and play like we have seen on the TV but the ones we saw were too busy sunbathing. I did get to briefly swim with one however.
These were just some of the most amazing wildlife we saw. There were birds and other smaller creatures we saw but I cant mention them all. I hope that I haven’t bored you but I feel this wildlife is so unique that it was worthy of a review all to itself.
Please note that I have now changed the photos from my review “A trip of a lifetime” to this review and put photos of the scenery on that review.
Thank you for reading.
If you would like to see this kind of wildlife then I recommend you visit www.llamatravel.com This wildlife watching was incorporated within the “Galapagos Starfish & a Taste of Ecuador holiday.
