Paisley Reflections

Animals

Seeing new animals and learning about them from locals in the Galápagos was a truly amazing and once in a lifetime experience. One of the most well known Galápagonian animals is the marine iguana. Throughout my ten-day stay in the islands, I saw at least 100 of these reptiles—even more if I count the lizards. The large iguana I saw ranged in sizes: 1-3 ft in length, and 2-12 inches in height. Our official guide, Nick, explained how female iguanas reproduce and lay their eggs. Mothers usually lay 4-7 eggs and those eggs hatch in about 100 days then run to the closest rocks for camouflage by instinct so they don’t get eaten by large predators like birds.

     We also saw a whole lot of sea lions during our visit. They liked the pier that was near our hotel, so we got to see a lot up close. Some even laid on the benches there!

     Pink, tall flamingos were another thing we got to see while in the Galápagos. There were some wild ones on National Park grounds just eating and cleaning themselves. We even got to see one fly! Did you know that their wings are black underneath? I sure didnʻt! Since flamingos are in the Honolulu Zoo, I wasnʻt as excited to see them compared to my excitement when seeing the other animals, but it was really awesome seeing one do something other then stand all weird. The guide told us that the flamingos have a filter within their beak that allows them to filter through the mud in the sediment to eat their prey, and the more pink a flamingo is, the more healthy it is!

     We also saw Galápagos penguins and the famous endemic Galápagos Blue-Footed Booby. It was awesome seeing a penguin in its natural habitat! The booby was also really cool to see because of its strangely colored feet. Some people say that the coloration of their feet are a result of a certain fish they have in their diet, but thatʻs not confirmed.

     We also saw forest birds, like warblers and finches, and sea birds, like ʻiwa, noio, pelicans, and herons. We also saw a lot of tortoises. Some were in the middle of the road. We also got to go to a tortoise breeding center (Centro de Visitantes) and see little baby tortoises! At the center, we learned that the tortoises can weigh up to 300 kg and can live up to 100 years or longer. On a different day, we learned that their shells never stop growing and that you can distinguish the tortoises between male and female by their body shape. Females are 2/3 - 1/4 the size of a male, and they have short, pointy tails. The males, on the other hand, have long tails and are usually much bigger than the females unless there is a large age gap.

- Paisley Richards