It’s a small bird that evolved to have smaller wings as it had no predators to fly away from, so now it’s little wings are more or less useless as it swims around the archipelago in search of fish to consume. Off in the distance (my lack of a good zoom lens made it difficult to get a picture), we saw a flightless cormorant perched on the shore - usually I saw them in the water when all that’s visible is the head and neck. As always, there were plenty of sea lions lounging on the beaches - I never tired of seeing them, particularly the pups.

This marine iguana is my spirit animal, especially pre-coffeeĪs we wandered past the mess of marine iguanas, we encountered more Galapagos wildlife and endemic fauna. Many of the lizards were splooting on the rocks - the water can be cold and spreading out on the lava rocks helps heat their bodies. The heron is the culprit for eating a baby marine iguana I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to catch it as the heron picked up a baby marine iguana for breakfast. It’s the only sound I heard from these creatures.As we stood at the start of our slow hike admiring the reptiles resting on the rocks, a heron in the back surveyed the mess. It’s not really a sneeze, but seems that way - the marine iguanas expel the salt they ingest while swimming, and it come out like wet snot. When I first saw the mess of marine iguanas on Isla Fernandina, I crouched down to admire how cool they looked and take a few pictures. I was unable to watch them eating algae and seaweed as I couldn’t see anything without prescription goggles when snorkeling, so I missed out on that sight. They have a shorter face with a hard shield on the top of their head for protection along with long claws to hold onto rocks in currents and sharper teeth than their land cousins. The marine iguanas are smaller than the land iguanas in the Galapagos, but they have longer tails to propel them through the water. This one definitely looks ready to stomp on a model of Tokyo Yes, they really do look like baby Godzilla, stomping on miniature cities and causing havoc. These reptiles are beautiful to those who appreciate the lizard life, or to those who like the newer iteration of Godzilla as they were the model for the destroyer of Tokyo. The heron in the background is looking for a snack Upon arrival and seeing the mess of marine iguanas (yes, “mess” is the collective modifier for a group of iguanas), our naturalists searched for a path around them without disturbing the nesting grounds or accidentally stepping on marine iguanas that so easily blend with the rocky landscape. One of the first marine iguanas I saw next to some mangrovesĪs we were in the Galapagos during mating/hatching season, it was necessary to be a little more careful walking around. This was the first close encounter with these amazing creatures. These amazing reptiles were found around most of the islands, but there were far more on Isla Fernandina at Punta Espinosa, which we visited on the third day of the Lindblad Expedition. It was after observing the species living on these islands that the famous British scientist Charles Darwin came up with his theories on evolution.One of my favorite animals to see around the Galapagos was the marine iguana, an endemic species only found in the archipelago. The Galapagos Islands, which include 13 large islands, six smaller islands and 42 islets, were declared a world Heritage site in 1978 and are home to numerous, often endemic species. The study, which is part of a bigger investigation programming to all of the snakes that live in the Galapagos Islands, totalling nine species, began in 2018, with the scientists only publishing their results now. But they also said that these occurrences could be random. The scientists concluded that the reason why the snakes are exhibiting cannibalistic tendencies could be due to a state of stress that instinctively stops them from dying of starvation. We are only beginning to understand the trophic relationships of these snakes which will help us conserve them in the long term.” In a place like Galapagos, it pays to be a generalist as prey numbers can fluctuate dramatically between years. He told Newsflash in an exclusive interview: “Our study highlights the generalist feeding behaviour of Galapagos terrestrial snakes. A Western Galapagos Racer (Pseudalsophis occidentalis) that shows cannibal behaviours on Fernandina Island, Galapagos Islands.

Fernandina island racer snakes