Santa Cruz Island
I have a great story to tell you today. In the past days we have been really lucky watching many animals mating. To date, the list of the mating sightings is amazing. Sea turtles in the ocean, comical blue-footed boobies on land, female lava lizards “playing hard to get” with persistent males chasing them around. Elegant waved albatrosses concentrated in their courtship. Pelicans practicing acrobatic movements mating on mangroves. Rare and beautiful Galapagos penguins performing their best on lava rocks. All these “love expressions” and their subsequent commotion made us feel, in one way or another, romantic.
Today while visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station we were joking about all these previous events. Somebody in the group asked me if we were going to see more “love expressions”. Among the loud general laughing I replied that, as we had been so fortunate, we could expect some action yet to be. And… we had some! This time, giant Galapagos tortoises were mating in front of us. The event was both very amusing and, at the same time, very important for conservation. The tortoise couple that we observed mating today belongs to one of the rarest Galapagos tortoises’ races. Please check a previous report from Tuesday, October 22, 2002. In this expedition report I explained in detail the fascinating story behind “Diego”. In a nutshell, in 1.978 Diego was repatriated to Ecuador after living without female companions of its own race for fifty years! He lived all that time in the world renowned San Diego Zoo. Once Diego came back he encountered the last twelve pretty females of his race waiting for him. He has been doing a great job to save its own race. Every time I can see the different animal species mating in Galapagos I can not avoid to cheer them up with sincere enthusiasm. Diego’s special mating sighting and the previous ones made us think about the daily miracle of life that takes place in these remote islands.
I have a great story to tell you today. In the past days we have been really lucky watching many animals mating. To date, the list of the mating sightings is amazing. Sea turtles in the ocean, comical blue-footed boobies on land, female lava lizards “playing hard to get” with persistent males chasing them around. Elegant waved albatrosses concentrated in their courtship. Pelicans practicing acrobatic movements mating on mangroves. Rare and beautiful Galapagos penguins performing their best on lava rocks. All these “love expressions” and their subsequent commotion made us feel, in one way or another, romantic.
Today while visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station we were joking about all these previous events. Somebody in the group asked me if we were going to see more “love expressions”. Among the loud general laughing I replied that, as we had been so fortunate, we could expect some action yet to be. And… we had some! This time, giant Galapagos tortoises were mating in front of us. The event was both very amusing and, at the same time, very important for conservation. The tortoise couple that we observed mating today belongs to one of the rarest Galapagos tortoises’ races. Please check a previous report from Tuesday, October 22, 2002. In this expedition report I explained in detail the fascinating story behind “Diego”. In a nutshell, in 1.978 Diego was repatriated to Ecuador after living without female companions of its own race for fifty years! He lived all that time in the world renowned San Diego Zoo. Once Diego came back he encountered the last twelve pretty females of his race waiting for him. He has been doing a great job to save its own race. Every time I can see the different animal species mating in Galapagos I can not avoid to cheer them up with sincere enthusiasm. Diego’s special mating sighting and the previous ones made us think about the daily miracle of life that takes place in these remote islands.
