South Plaza and Santa Fe Islands
“These islands appear paradises for the whole family of reptiles.” —Darwin, 1835
Today we observed what Darwin saw years ago: The Galápagos Islands dominated by reptiles. Different from other places on Earth, due to their isolation, very few mammals were able to colonize this volcanic territory leaving an empty niche for reptiles. Darwin didn’t like them, but still he felt interested in their behavior: “Like their brothers the sea kind, they are ugly animals, of a yellowish orange beneath, and a brownish red color above: from their low facial angle they have a singularly stupid appearance.” —Darwin, 1835
We visited South Plaza in the morning, after a couple of steps we found a Galápagos land iguana climbing upside down on a shrub. It was funny to observe how this animal tried to balance its whole body with its tail, eventually it fell down on the lava rocks. We continued walking to observe over 20 land iguanas looking for shade under a beautiful cactus forest. This species Conolophus subcristatus is found in the western and central islands. The prickly pear cactus is their main source of food during the dry season. Unfortunately the species was close to extinction due to the introduction of land mammals that became invasive species, but today due to the conservation efforts of the Galápagos National Park we can observe how they are reestablishing their dominance. A couple of marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) were sunbathing along the cliffs of South Plaza. This is such a small island that it’s easy to enter others species territory and get confused! Here we can find the mixture of these two species, land and marine iguanas breed to procreate the weirdest looking reptile: a hybrid that behaves mainly as a land iguana but has some of the characteristics of the marine iguana.
In the afternoon after snorkeling with many Pacific green sea turtles, we disembarked in Santa Fe Island. This is the only place where we can find the Santa Fe land iguana species (Conolophus pallidus). A couple of iguanas were spotted but we were all very excited to encounter a new species of reptile for us — the Galápagos snake. As well we were very lucky to spot one of the few endemic land mammals of the islands: the Santa Fe rice rat.
Darwin was certainly right. The islands are a paradise for reptiles, and of course also for visitors like us who enjoy of the wonders of the animal world.
