Galápagos: Isla Plaza Sur
Isla Plaza Sur, Isla Santa Cruz
On the second day, we traveled from Isla San Cristóbal to Isla Plaza Sur, a small island off the coast of the larger Isla Santa Cruz (there is also an Isla Plaza Norte, but it’s off-limits to humans).
Each day began with a nearby walk. We would hop on the pangas (aka “little boats” in Spanish, another word for a dinghy), and zoom up to a beach or a rocky outcrop, and then spend an hour or more roaming the island with Paola as our guide. I tried to write down as much as I possibly could to varying degrees of success.
The Galápagos are a series of volcanic islands, and the islands in the west of the archipelago are younger than the islands to the east. The Galápagos are relatively young, geologically speaking, arising around 5 million years ago. As species from the mainland began to colonize the different islands by air or by sea, populations diverged from their ancestral groups. Some of the western-most islands, which have the most volcanic activity, may be only hundreds of thousands of years old. As islands formed, animals and plants continued to move westward. Many of the species on each island are closely related to others in the Galápagos, but they have subtle differences.
(click on the below maps to make them bigger)
Land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus). This small island of Isla Plaza Sur is one of the best places in all of the Galápagos to see land iguanas.
The top left image shows a number of land iguana burrows. During his voyage to the Galápagos, Darwin wrote,
We could not for some time find a spot free from their burrows on which to pitch our single tent. (Darwin, 1839, “Voyage of the Beagle”)
A project by researchers and volunteers from the Darwin Research Institute. They are attempting to grow a field prickly pear cacti, which used to be abundant on this island. The cacti are vulnerable until a certain age, which is why there are cages around them to prevent predation by land iguanas.
Oh, and remember that owl from the previous Galápagos birds post? The Galápagos short-eared owl (Asio flammeus ssp. galapagoensis) staring into your soul?
Well, you can tell when one has been around when you see wings of other birds on the ground. Almost as though the body disappeared and left the wings perfectly in place. They grab their prey, typically an unsuspecting shearwater bird, and devour everything but the wings, as shown below.
