Animals of the Galapagos

Land Iguana: The islands are home to the Land Iguana with their smiling, greenish face. They just laze around in the sun. They did holes in the ground and live in large underground communities. We saw their snake-like trails everywhere in the sand and dirt. You can see the tail trail and where their claws dig in.
Marine Iguana: The marine Iguanas are everywhere. The males are larger than the females. You will see a large group of them together just laying in the sun. They are a dark grey and look like a prehistoric reptile! They just are freaky! We had to step over them and when I was snorkeling, I would see them swimming in the water.

Galapagos Giant Tortoise: The first thing we saw as we drove across the country side on the leeside of the island was the Giant Galapagos Tortoise. They were in the wild and they had cruised onto a local farm. There were two of them in a large fenced in area with the local farm stock. They seemed more active than the tortoises at the Sedgwick County Zoo. You need to take a moment to learn more about the Galapagos Tortoise. They are such fascinating animals.

Blue Footed Booby: Ok…I know what you are thinking! The name of these fascinating birds just is too funny. The Galapagos tourist Department realizes this as well because there were more T shirts with silly sayings regarding the Blue Footed Booby than any other animal on the islands. I was just laughing. I could not purchase a T shirt for my teenage son because I knew he would get into trouble by trying to wear a T shirt to school. The Blue Footed Booby is a bird that can turn his head around to face the direction of his back similar to an owl. It is the strangest looking bird. There is also a Red Footed Booby.

Sally Light Foot Crabs: The brilliantly red and orange crabs were evident on all the rocks along the shorelines. They clung to the rocks and appeared as red dots from a distance. They are beautiful!

Sea Lions: The Sea Lions were curious and every time we would go snorkeling, we would find a couple of Sea Lions joining us in the water. They appear awkward, laborious and clunky on land but in the water, they are graceful and lithe. The Sea Lions would swim up beside us really quickly and then slow down to match our swimming pace. They would swim up and ‘eye’ us with curiosity. We would swim down and swim around with them and imitate their movements. They would get close enough to touch! During my very last dive, a female swam up and was beside me for quite awhile. I was diving down under the water and imitating her movements. I got brave enough to reach out and stroke her large, brown fur covered body. She quivered all over. When she jumped, I gasped. This is not a good thing to do when you are snorkeling underwater with a J-tube in your mouth! I choked, gasped and coughed. I had to surface to breathe. I loved it though! I had to laugh at myself and my own excitement.

The Sea Lion bulls take over a group of females for a period of about two weeks. He has to remain vigilant because another bull that will try to contend for his position. Therefore, he doesn’t eat while he is in charge of the herd of females. After awhile of not eating and sleeping, he begins to lose weight and stamina and another healthy bull will challenge him and win. So, the next bull takes over as the leader of the group. Read more about the Sea Lions and their smaller relatives, the Fur Seals.

Galapagos Penguins: Think about this one: Penguins on the equator! We usually associate penguins with cold weather. There were penguins at the equator. They were adorable. They are the second smallest penguins in the world.