Espanola Island
Today we spent the whole day in the southeastern most island, Espanola or Hood, as it’s called in English. It was a great outing. We saw a lot of sea lions at the landing site as part of the welcome committee, marine iguanas sunbathing, charging their batteries in order to face the water and get their food supply, sea bird colonies, like Nazca Boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, red-billed tropicbirds.
Of course lava lizards, the most ubiquitous reptiles of the arid lowlands were present. Seven endemic species are found in the archipelago and a separate species is found on most islands except for Genovesa, Darwin and Wolf islands. The most dramatic example of how isolation on different islands can lead to divergence in character, is the “push-up” behavior of these lizards. The push-up display is usually associated with terrestrial aggression or courtship, and may be shown by both sexes.
The temperatures of rock and sand can be very high on sunny days, and one often sees lizards walking, or standing, on their “ankles” with their toes raised off the ground to reduce heat transfer as you see in the picture.
Today we spent the whole day in the southeastern most island, Espanola or Hood, as it’s called in English. It was a great outing. We saw a lot of sea lions at the landing site as part of the welcome committee, marine iguanas sunbathing, charging their batteries in order to face the water and get their food supply, sea bird colonies, like Nazca Boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, red-billed tropicbirds.
Of course lava lizards, the most ubiquitous reptiles of the arid lowlands were present. Seven endemic species are found in the archipelago and a separate species is found on most islands except for Genovesa, Darwin and Wolf islands. The most dramatic example of how isolation on different islands can lead to divergence in character, is the “push-up” behavior of these lizards. The push-up display is usually associated with terrestrial aggression or courtship, and may be shown by both sexes.
The temperatures of rock and sand can be very high on sunny days, and one often sees lizards walking, or standing, on their “ankles” with their toes raised off the ground to reduce heat transfer as you see in the picture.
