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FACT SHEET Giant Tortoise FACT SHEET Giant Tortoise The Galápagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra and related species) is one of the most famous animals of Fun Facts the Galápagos Islands. Indeed, that’s where the name comes from - galápago is old Spanish for “tortoise." • Giant tortoises can go up to a year without Giant tortoises live on only six islands now - driven to eating or drinking. extinction on others by hunting, habitat destruction • They are really slow. and invasive species. They walk at .16 mph (for perspective, Whalers used to take hundreds of tortoises at a time humans walk at about and stack them upside down on their ships to serve as 3 mph). fresh meat later in the voyage. Over 200,000 tortoises were taken this way before the 20th century. • Giant tortoises live over 100 years. One The Galápagos population bottomed out at a lived over 150 years! few thousand in the mid-1970s, but has partially recovered to about 20,000 today. Lonesome George, the last tortoise originally from Pinta Island, died in 2012. FACT SHEET Marine Iguana The marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus Fun Facts cristatus) is found only in the Galápagos Islands. It is the only sea- • They can dive as deep as 100 ft and going lizard in the world - it dives in the stay underwater for up to an hour. ocean to forage for algae. • They expel extra salt (the result of a high-salt diet) by sneezing - thus their Scientists believe it is descended from heads are often white. the Central American land iguana and adapted to life in the Galápagos Islands • Males turn partly red during mating by eating algae along the shore, slowly season and butt heads to establish developing diving skills. dominance. PHOTO: WIKIPEDIA PHOTO: Marine iguanas are normally black as this helps them absorb heat from the sun. FACT SHEET Green Turtle The Galápagos green turtle (Chelonia mydas agassisi) is a sub-species of Fun Facts the green sea turtle and the only • When the female digs a burrow turtle that nests in the Galápagos in the sand to lay her eggs, she Islands. sometimes digs a second "fake" burrow to mislead predators. Newly hatched turtles race down the beach to the water at night to avoid • Slow on land, they are really fast predators and swim for 24 hours to in the water. They can swim at an get away from the shore and to the incredible 35mph. relative safety of the open water. • Even though they breathe air, they Green sea turtles are on the Red can sleep underwater for short List of Threatened Species and are periods of time. protected by law. The turltes have a green shade green due to their algae and seagrass diet. FACT SHEET Galápagos Finches Darwin mislabeled many of the birds Fun Facts he collected in the Galápagos and did not realize their importance at the • The woodpecker finch uses a time. But once he got back to England small twig or stick to extract and the ornithologist John Gould grubs from the holes it drills in identified thirteen different species of trees. It is a rare non-primate tool finch in his collections, he immediately user. grasped their evolutionary significance. • The so-called "vampire" finch will peck at the legs of other birds, Descended from the South American drawing blood and drinking it. finch, each species evolved to exploit a Why other birds put up with this unique food source with a specialized is not fully understood. beak. • The Galápagos finches are part of The large ground finch, for example, the Tanager family, and are not has a large, strong beak that can break closely related to true finches. open large seeds. The small ground finch (with a smaller beak) focuses on smaller seeds - it cannot crack open the larger ones. Each species zeroed in on a specific niche. One finch eats insects, another cactus flowers. One eats fruit, others only seeds. Today, Darwin's Finches are closely studied as examples of evolution through natural selection. Touch here to learn about the work of Peter and Rosemary Grant who spent forty years studying the Galápagos finches. The medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis). FACT SHEET Galápagos Penguin Although the Galápagos sit on the Fun Facts equator, the water is cold because the Humboldt Current brings Sub- • The equator cuts through Isabela, Antarctic water up the west coast of so some of the penguins actually South America to the islands. live in the Northern Hemisphere, the only penguins to do so. Galàpagos penguins live nowhere else in the world and are seriously • On land, they use their flippers endangered. There are fewer than to shade their feet which heat up 1,500 left in the wild. quickly in the sun. El Niño events have a significant • They are the second smallest impact on the penguins, as food penguin (the smallest is the "little becomes scarce and reproductive penguin" found in Australia and rates fall sharply. New Zealand). Galápagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus). FACT SHEET Blue-footed Booby The blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) is clumsy on land, but they know how Fun Facts to catch fish. They nose-dive from 100 • They are a noisy bunch. They are feet up, hit the water at 60 mph like always grunting and males are a missle and go as deep as 80 feet to known to throw up their heads and snag a meal. whistle at females flying by. Males attract females by showing off • There is a red-footed booby, too. their feet in a sort of soft-shoe dance. Foot color is a sign of health and • Booby comes from the Spanish females prefer males whose feet are "bobo," which means foolish. the brightest blue. Blue-footed Boobies are mongamous. Pairs stick together. FACT SHEET Sea Lion The Galàpagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) lives only in the Galàpagos Fun Facts and on Isla de la Plata (off the coast fo Ecuador). • A large bull can reach 7 feet in length and weigh up to 800 lbs. Sea lions are friendly and curious and this gets them into trouble as they get • Sea lions make a sound very caught in nets, entangled in gear and similar to a dog's bark. hit by boats. • Sea lions are heavily impacted by They form colonies where they come El Niño events when food is ashore. One bull rules the group and scarce. the surrounding territory. Sea lions are very friendly. More like sea pups than sea lions. FACT SHEET Whale Shark Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) can grow up to 60 feet in length and weigh Fun Facts 30 tons. Fortunately, they are filter- feeders. • The whale shark is the largest animal in the world that is not a They take in large amounts of water whale (it is a shark!). through their very large mouths and filter out plankton, krill and other small • It is believed the whale shark marine organisms. lives up to 100 years. They are found throughout open • Whale sharks have never been tropical waters and can be seen from observed mating or pupping. June to December around the northern Not much is known about this islands of Wolf and Darwin in the giant of the ocean. Galápagos. The whale shark is a gentle giant and divers can often get very close. FACT SHEET Sally Lightfoot Crab The Sally Lightfoot crab (Grapsus Fun Facts grapsus) is reputedly named after a Caribbean dancer due to its agility. • Grapsus grapsus was one of the specimens collected by One of the most colorful denizens Charles Darwin when he visited of the Galápagos, the Sally Lightfoot the Galápagos Islands in 1835. is almost impossible to catch. It can • They carry water in their shells seemingly move in any direction to pour over their gills so they instantaneously. John Steinbeck wrote, can breathe on land. "If you walk slowly, they move slowly ahead of you...If you hurry, they hurry. It can poke its pointed legs into When you plunge at them, they seem • tiny holes in the lava to hold on to disappear..." when waves hit. The Sally Lightfoot Crab in full color. FACT SHEET Galápagos Finches Peter and Rosemary Grant: Research on Daphne Major Peter and Rosemary Grant spent Climate changes (droughts, El Niño forty years (1973-2013) studying events, etc.), affect vegetation on the finches on the island of Daphne Daphne Major and therefore the food Major, a small island just north of supply. Santa Cruz. When new conditions arise they favor certain characteristics—like a certain beak size. As a result, some individuals have an advantage and have more offspring, and the optimal beak size becomes more prevalent throughout the population as it is passed on through Peter and Rosemary Grant on the Island of Daphne Major. genes. Photo: K.T. Grant The Grants were able to observe Over the years, the Grants caught such changes year-to-year. Natural and tagged 20,000 finches spanning Selection moves fast on Daphne eight generations, tracking them year Major. after year, recording weight, beak size, wingspan, and recording familial Changes that were once thought to relationships. take generations took place over a year or two. A popular account of the What they discovered was totally Grants' work, The Beak of the Finch, unexpected: They could literally see by author Jonathan Weiner, won the evolution in action. Pulitzer Prize. FACT SHEET Charles Darwin Foundation Not just Tortoises are in Trouble A combination of rats (which eat their eggs) and a new type of The Mangrove finch, which lives only parasitic fly (Philornis downsi) that on the Island of Isabela, is one of the attacks the chicks, threaten the tiny rarest birds in the world.
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