Isabela and Fernandina Islands
Early in the morning we were awakened for a beautiful sunrise and a gigantic rock in front of us, “Roca Redonda.” This rock is the remains of a volcano that formed in the last million years, and now the only part we can see is a remnant, surrounded by big waves, and a location used by many different birds for nesting and roosting sites. We crossed the Equator from the northern into the southern hemisphere, and encountered another island, one of the most active of this archipelago, Isabela Island.
Isabela is home to two species of flightless birds unique in the world – the Galápagos penguin, and the flightless cormorant. The latter is the clearest example of evolution that has occurred on these islands. This bird flew from the mainland (whether intentionally or not, we’ll never know) and arrived only to find a land where there were almost no natural predators. It is possible that the evolution of these birds started when some years of bad weather conditions took place in the Galápagos (may be the “El Niño” phenomenon), and they had to find a different way to survive. Only those who adapted to the new conditions survived, perhaps the fastest swimmers, the deepest divers, or the best fish hunters. Those that survived these bad climatic conditions passed their advantageous characteristics to the next generations. This possibly happened many times over hundreds of thousands of years, and now all of their descendants are flightless, but very good fast, deep divers, the best hunters in the area.
Today these birds have very few feathers on their wings, big muscles in their legs and feet, and can dive deeper than 30 feet to get the right fish or octopus. May be in the next hundred thousand years this bird will evolve even fewer feathers on their wings and even stronger legs and feet they can use to travel through the water. Isabela and Fernandina Islands are the home of these beautiful birds that keep changing and evolving. That is the law of the living.
Early in the morning we were awakened for a beautiful sunrise and a gigantic rock in front of us, “Roca Redonda.” This rock is the remains of a volcano that formed in the last million years, and now the only part we can see is a remnant, surrounded by big waves, and a location used by many different birds for nesting and roosting sites. We crossed the Equator from the northern into the southern hemisphere, and encountered another island, one of the most active of this archipelago, Isabela Island.
Isabela is home to two species of flightless birds unique in the world – the Galápagos penguin, and the flightless cormorant. The latter is the clearest example of evolution that has occurred on these islands. This bird flew from the mainland (whether intentionally or not, we’ll never know) and arrived only to find a land where there were almost no natural predators. It is possible that the evolution of these birds started when some years of bad weather conditions took place in the Galápagos (may be the “El Niño” phenomenon), and they had to find a different way to survive. Only those who adapted to the new conditions survived, perhaps the fastest swimmers, the deepest divers, or the best fish hunters. Those that survived these bad climatic conditions passed their advantageous characteristics to the next generations. This possibly happened many times over hundreds of thousands of years, and now all of their descendants are flightless, but very good fast, deep divers, the best hunters in the area.
Today these birds have very few feathers on their wings, big muscles in their legs and feet, and can dive deeper than 30 feet to get the right fish or octopus. May be in the next hundred thousand years this bird will evolve even fewer feathers on their wings and even stronger legs and feet they can use to travel through the water. Isabela and Fernandina Islands are the home of these beautiful birds that keep changing and evolving. That is the law of the living.
