Santa Cruz Island
Dawn found us anchored in Academy Bay off the centrally located island of Santa Cruz. We disembarked on this misty, garua morning and landed on the National Park’s dock among mangroves and resting marine iguanas. We visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, spending most of our time looking at and learning about the extremely successful giant tortoise captive breeding program.
Giant tortoises were taken from Galápagos by the early sealers, whalers and passing sailors and loaded the reptiles into the holds of their ships to later be eaten. In the era before refrigeration, a tortoise steak was highly appreciated by sailing crews who otherwise ate weevil ridden biscuits, salt pork in brine and fish, for months on end. Because they are well adapted to the long droughts that occur in these islands, tortoises can go for two years or more without food and water; a capacity that made them the perfect meat for early sailors. Hundreds of thousands of the hapless animals were captured and removed from Galápagos.
On some islands the tortoises went extinct; on others their numbers were reduced to dangerously low levels. In 1964 the then recently set up Darwin Station did an inventory of the various tortoise populations and, with support of the National Park, set up a captive breeding program for the most endangered populations. Hundreds of young tortoises have been repatriated to the islands of their origin and several populations have been saved from the brink of extinction.
The captive breeding program’s most famous individual tortoise, Lonesome George (the sole survivor from the northern island of Pinta), and has recently been in the international news! George has been in captivity for over 30 years, accompanied by two closely related female tortoises, but they have never produced eggs and there has been little hope that George would ever reproduce. Last week, to the delight of all, one of George’s girlfriends laid eggs! Now it remains to be seen whether or not the eggs are fertile and will hatch. They are being tenderly cared for and incubated and time will tell whether or not Lonesome George will not be lonesome anymore.
We saw Lonesome George and his two lady friends in a rock walled corral this morning. He looked exactly the same today as he has for many years; he is certainly blissfully unaware of his recent celebrity status. After taking our photos and wishing him luck as a father, we headed on down through the town of Puerto Ayora, shopping as we went, and when we reached them, we boarded buses to drive up to the highlands.
At the farm called “El Chato” many of us walked a quarter of a mile through a lava tunnel and when we popped out next to the restaurant we found a bountiful buffet lunch. We boarded the buses again for a short drive and searched among the lush grasses and shrubby vegetation for wild tortoises. We were happy to find 8 medium sized individuals; the majority of the larger animals are breeding and nesting in the lowlands of the island at this time of the year.
Our final visit of the day was to the pit craters, “Los Gemelos” or “The Twins.” These are two impressive, large collapse holes on either side of the road that crosses from Puerto to Baltra. In the endemic daisy trees of the genus Scalesia, we spied orchids, mosses and bromeliads that are evergreen thanks to the garua moisture which keeps the highlands wet and cool long after the rainy season has ended. We identified some of the confusing Darwin’s finches: warbler finches, small tree finches and small and medium ground finches were the most common. We also admired the lovely and fearless Galápagos dove with its turquoise eye ring, pink feet and purplish sheen on the breast, and the handsome gray and charcoal Galápagos mockingbird. We descended to town and returned to the ship with smiles on our faces and satisfaction in our hearts; we had a marvelous time during our brief visit to the inhabited island of Santa Cruz and were ready to return now to the pristine side of Galápagos. The Captain hauled the anchor up and off we sailed towards the western islands of Isabela and Fernandina.
Dawn found us anchored in Academy Bay off the centrally located island of Santa Cruz. We disembarked on this misty, garua morning and landed on the National Park’s dock among mangroves and resting marine iguanas. We visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, spending most of our time looking at and learning about the extremely successful giant tortoise captive breeding program.
Giant tortoises were taken from Galápagos by the early sealers, whalers and passing sailors and loaded the reptiles into the holds of their ships to later be eaten. In the era before refrigeration, a tortoise steak was highly appreciated by sailing crews who otherwise ate weevil ridden biscuits, salt pork in brine and fish, for months on end. Because they are well adapted to the long droughts that occur in these islands, tortoises can go for two years or more without food and water; a capacity that made them the perfect meat for early sailors. Hundreds of thousands of the hapless animals were captured and removed from Galápagos.
On some islands the tortoises went extinct; on others their numbers were reduced to dangerously low levels. In 1964 the then recently set up Darwin Station did an inventory of the various tortoise populations and, with support of the National Park, set up a captive breeding program for the most endangered populations. Hundreds of young tortoises have been repatriated to the islands of their origin and several populations have been saved from the brink of extinction.
The captive breeding program’s most famous individual tortoise, Lonesome George (the sole survivor from the northern island of Pinta), and has recently been in the international news! George has been in captivity for over 30 years, accompanied by two closely related female tortoises, but they have never produced eggs and there has been little hope that George would ever reproduce. Last week, to the delight of all, one of George’s girlfriends laid eggs! Now it remains to be seen whether or not the eggs are fertile and will hatch. They are being tenderly cared for and incubated and time will tell whether or not Lonesome George will not be lonesome anymore.
We saw Lonesome George and his two lady friends in a rock walled corral this morning. He looked exactly the same today as he has for many years; he is certainly blissfully unaware of his recent celebrity status. After taking our photos and wishing him luck as a father, we headed on down through the town of Puerto Ayora, shopping as we went, and when we reached them, we boarded buses to drive up to the highlands.
At the farm called “El Chato” many of us walked a quarter of a mile through a lava tunnel and when we popped out next to the restaurant we found a bountiful buffet lunch. We boarded the buses again for a short drive and searched among the lush grasses and shrubby vegetation for wild tortoises. We were happy to find 8 medium sized individuals; the majority of the larger animals are breeding and nesting in the lowlands of the island at this time of the year.
Our final visit of the day was to the pit craters, “Los Gemelos” or “The Twins.” These are two impressive, large collapse holes on either side of the road that crosses from Puerto to Baltra. In the endemic daisy trees of the genus Scalesia, we spied orchids, mosses and bromeliads that are evergreen thanks to the garua moisture which keeps the highlands wet and cool long after the rainy season has ended. We identified some of the confusing Darwin’s finches: warbler finches, small tree finches and small and medium ground finches were the most common. We also admired the lovely and fearless Galápagos dove with its turquoise eye ring, pink feet and purplish sheen on the breast, and the handsome gray and charcoal Galápagos mockingbird. We descended to town and returned to the ship with smiles on our faces and satisfaction in our hearts; we had a marvelous time during our brief visit to the inhabited island of Santa Cruz and were ready to return now to the pristine side of Galápagos. The Captain hauled the anchor up and off we sailed towards the western islands of Isabela and Fernandina.
