Española and Floreana Islands

This morning, we headed to Española Island, the oldest island in archipelago (which means chain of islands) Eighty percent of the endemic (native) species of the Galapagos live here. I got
to see more sea lions (in fact some where on the path so we had to scoot

Nazca Boobies /Juvenile Waved Albatross

around them), marine iguanas, Galapagos hawks, blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies (a subspecies of the Masked Booby, which lives on the mainland of Ecuador), and the waved albatross.

To learn about why the waved albatross is on the critically endangered list, click here.

This afternoon, we went on a deep water snorkel, where we got to see parrot fish, angel fish, starfish, a swimming sea lion, many rays and a white tipped reef shark! After snorkeling, we quickly changed and headed for Floreana island, where we saw flamingos! We also got to see a pacific green turtle exiting the sea.
Blue-footed booby


Marine Iguana

Floreana is inhabited, and although we did not see the inhabited side of the island, we could see the impacts of the invasive species introduced there. Invasive means that the species are not native and that they take over habitats of other plants or animals or that they prey on animals. On some of these islands, there are stray cats and dogs, horses, donkeys, cows, goats, rats, and wild pigs that are invasive. These are dangerous to the ecosystem. Goats eat so much vegetation that there is nothing left for the giant tortoises. Rats eat tortoise eggs (as I mentioned earlier). Cats and dogs prey on endemic animals as well. Today we saw a penguin corpse that our guide thought had been attacked by a cat. Although invasive species are not a major problem in Massachusetts, we need to think about how the choices we make, even as simple as the pets we keep, can impact the environment both negatively or positively.