Isolation Or Integration
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GALAPAGOSMATTERS SPRING | SUMMER 2015 GCT at 20 Animals from space Isolation or integration galapagosconservation.org.uk GALAPAGOSMATTERS SPRING | SUMMER 2015 GCT at 20 Animals from space Isolation or integration GALAPAGOSMATTERS FROM THE Cover Satellites have proved to be a valuable tool for studying CONTENTS the movements and behaviour of animals around PRESIDENT the world. Galapagos is no exception (p. 21). Artwork by Monty Halls by Lisa Brown. galapagosconservation.org.uk Wild Galapagos 18-21 Feature: The Lost Years 4-5 What do giant tortoises get up to in their youth? By tracking the movements of baby giant tortoises, 6-7 Galapagos News Stephen Blake, Fredy Cabrera and Freddy Villamar Catch up on the latest news from the Islands hope to find some answers. © MONTY HALLS and the work of the Galapagos Conservation was recently asked in a press interview to “define exploration”, a daunting Trust’s partners around the world. 22 Global Relevance question if there ever was one. After a moment’s hesitation, I answered that Galapagos and the Seychelles have much in “you’ll know it when you see it, or indeed feel it.” Exploration is, after all, a deeply common, including their likely future, argues I 8-13 Feature: GCT at 20 personal thing. No-one can tell me that my three-year-old daughter’s first tentative steps The Galapagos Conservation Trust is 20. Julian Fitter GCT Ambassador Ian Swingland. and Ian Dunn take stock of Galapagos past, present into the sea are any less of an expedition for her than the greatest explorers’ epic voyages and future. 23 Reviews were for them. Read up on the latest Galapagos-related culture. 14-15 Feature: The Sting That Could Save Much the same can be said about to be seen in zoos and nature reserves, that I have never been anywhere Darwin’s Finches 24 Membership Galapagos. Ask anyone who visits I found it remarkable that the entire like it before or since, and the sights, Henry Nicholls talks to entomologists George the Islands for the first time what their Archipelago was very much still the sounds and experiences are burned Heimpel and Charlotte Causton about efforts to 2016 Cruises overwhelming impression is, and habitat of both wildlife and man, living on my memory, scorched into my 25 you’ll receive 100 different answers. cheek by jowl and going about their conscience to remain there until my control the invasive nest parasite Philornis downsi. Join us for the trip of a lifetime in 2016. The Islands are at once a source of day-to-day lives. Stepping gingerly dying day. collective global pride, a rare jewel over that iguana, it dawned on me I am delighted and honoured to 16-17 Project Updates 26 Events in the world’s ecological crown, whilst that Galapagos was not famous for its be asked to be the President of the Find out what’s been happening with the simultaneously being an intensely nature reserves, the whole Archipelago Galapagos Conservation Trust. The mangrove finch, penguins and cormorants and personal experience for all those is one vast reserve. This, in turn, means work that it – and by extension you, Discovering Galapagos projects. 27 Merchandise who visit. Such is the power of this that the balance between the natural the membership – does to support experience that it is frequently environment and the inevitable human the Islands is invaluable. All too often, life-altering, tilting the axis of personal pressure is particularly sensitive, crucial conservation and community perceptions about the natural world and needs constant assessment and projects fail through lack of funds. But and changing the course of a attention. with your contributions, enthusiasm CONTRIBUTORS visitor’s life. I have had the good fortune to return and support, we can protect and Such was the case for one young to the Islands on another filming support such projects in Galapagos. marine biologist in 2003 on his first project, and travelled slightly further In so doing, you are giving future visit to the Islands. I have a particularly afield. This gave me a glimpse of generations the chance to have their strong memory of arriving at my the wider system, seeing parts of the own unique experience of this most lodgings in Puerto Ayora and finding Archipelago that have changed little enchanted of Archipelagos. a marine iguana draped across the since the Islands’ formation. At this front of my door like some sort of juncture I struggle to find the words Monty Halls novelty draft excluder. Coming from to describe my experiences in this most President Europe, where of course animals tend raw, elemental landscape. Suffice to say © IAN DUNN © S. MATURIN © GODFREY MERLEN © FRANCESCA CUNNINGHAME Stephen Blake worked in Central Julian Fitter is an environmental Ian Swingland is Emeritus Professor Galapagos Matters is a copyright biannual publication produced for members of the Galapagos Africa for over 15 years on a variety consultant, conservationist, naturalist of Conservation Biology and the founder Conservation Trust. of conservation issues before moving and writer with a special interest in of The Durrell Institute of Conservation The information in this issue was ISSN 2050-6074 Galapagos Matters Designer: The Graphic Design House to Galapagos in 2008. He established island ecosystems. He ran the first yacht and Ecology at the University of Kent. obtained from various sources, all is printed on paper made from well Printer: Bishops Printers the Giant Tortoise Movement Ecology charter business in Galapagos and was a During the 1970s, he lived and worked of which have extensive knowledge managed forests and controlled Charles Darwin Suite, of Galapagos, but neither GCT nor sources. 28 Portland Place, London W1B 1LY Programme to conduct research on the driving force behind the formation of the on Aldabra, studying its giant tortoises, the contributors are responsible Editor: Henry Nicholls 020 7399 7440 movement of Galapagos tortoises. Galapagos Conservation Trust in 1995. and has visited Galapagos many times. for the accuracy of the contents or Chief Executive: Ian Dunn [email protected] the opinions expressed herein. Communications Officer: www.galapagosconservation.org.uk Pete Haskell 020 7399 7440 GALAPAGOS MATTERS SPRING | SUMMER 2015 3 WILD GALAPAGOS onathan Green, a professional photographer and Jfounder of the Galapagos Whale Shark Project, spotted this lava lizard lying in wait on the back of a sea lion at Punta Espinoza on Fernandina, the youngest of the Galapagos Islands. Lava lizards, of which there are at least seven species in Galapagos, can often be seen on or around resting sea lions where they feed on passing insects. 4 GALAPAGOS MATTERS SPRING | SUMMER 2015 5 © SIMON PIERCE GALAPAGOS REGREENING MIGRATING SPECIES n November, delegates from Iover 170 countries attended a NEWS SANTA CRUZ conference in Quito to discuss proposals made to increase the protection of certain migrating © GNP animals. The governments of Ecuador and Costa Rica were successful in their proposal to list two species of hammerhead shark under Appendix II of the United Nations Convention for Migratory CDF UPDATE Species (CMS). This measure he Charles Darwin affords these iconic marine TFoundation (CDF) is predators greater protection when fighting to remain operational outside of protected national in Galapagos. In 2014, a series waters. An additional 19 species of financial difficulties threatened of sharks and rays were proposed to close the oldest and largest for listing, all of which were scientific operation in Galapagos accepted under the Convention. © AMNH/D. FINNIN for good. “We are witnessing the CDF © LIZA DÍAZ LÁLOVA, demise of the flagship institution dedicated to preservation of the iconic Archipelago,” CDF’s president Dennis Geist wrote to the CDF General Assembly in November. “Saving the institution will require the dedicated efforts of everyone who cares.” CDF’s The Galapagos National Park (GNP) took current mandate to operate in more than 50 staff into the field in February for Galapagos comes to an end in a day of intensive reforestation. The work took 2016 and discussions between place near Los Gemelos in the highlands of CDF and the Ecuadorian Santa Cruz and involved planting some 1600 government over the future of specimens of endemic and native species over the Charles Darwin Research an area of approximately two acres. Station are scheduled. © JAMES GIBBS GOOGLE GALAPAGOS DISPLAYING GEORGE PINZON HATCHLINGS n collaboration with the GNP, CDF and the University of Cuenca, he remains of Lonesome George, the last giant tortoise from en giant tortoise hatchlings have IGoogle is building on a pilot project conducted in 2013 that brought Tthe island of Pinta, will return to Ecuador this year. When he died Tbeen spotted on Pinzon, a clear Galapagos to a new, online audience. The Trekker, a backpack with unexpectedly in 2012 at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa indication the 2012 campaign to a 15-lens camera system that captures 360-degree images as the Cruz, the GNP sent his body to the United States to be transformed eradicate rats from the island has been wearer walks, is being used to resample some of the sites that have into a museum specimen. In September last year, the taxidermy was successful. It’s thought that rats, already been mapped so as to visualise changes over time and also revealed to the public in a special exhibition at the American Museum introduced to the Archipelago in the 19th to collect images at several new locations. Once processed at Google of Natural History in New York. The GNP is planning a special climate- century, have prevented Pinzon’s tortoises Headquarters, these new images are expected to appear on Google controlled building to house the taxidermy. It will be named after Fausto from breeding in the wild for more than Maps by the middle of this year.