For a long time,
Tagus Cove on the island of Isabella was used as a
parking space pirates, robbers and whalers. She also is known for a
visit to
Darwin - is named in his honor local volcano and lake.
We landed on the island, went upstairs and saw the lake in the crater of a former volcano:
On the way to find a cactus-like
Mickey Mouse:
Over the bay huge lava fields where nothing grows except cacti:
By Dima Cherkasova shirt can be seen that the recovery was complicated. Plus, it was very hot:
Here we first saw konolofa - land iguana:
Konolof unlike the
marine iguana looks prettier because of various
colors. Bright head, neck a little dark and different spots on the back.
Depending on the island, the color may vary slightly iguanas:
Galapagos iguana found only on some islands - Santa Cruz,
Isabela,
Fernandina and the Plaza. Terrestrial iguanas burrow and hide them from
the scorching sun. Lizards are trying to avoid coastal areas, living
away from the sea:
....
Little lizards threatens buzzard -
Galapagos hawk. Hearing the cry of
the predator, the iguana freezes in place, hoping that the bird would
not notice her. They say to catch an iguana, a cry of simulated people,
and then take the spacey lizard with bare hands. Iguanas are so slow
that the distance of a hundred meters to the hole can travel days. This
sluggishness can be attributed to poor, monotonous diet and lack of
vitamins:
Despite the menacing look, typical of predators, the iguana eats mostly
fruits and leaves
prickly pear cactus. She swallowed them without
chewing, and if by chance votknetsya thorn in the language, the lizard
pulls her paws or tongue twists until the needle falls itself:
And this is -
Darwin's finch.
Despite
the modest look, this bird is one of the key monasteries Galapagos. It
was she who inspired Darwin's famous theory of evolution. Presumably
finches flew here from
South America. Then divided into groups and were
fed different forages to make fuller use of food resources of the
islands.Some of them began to peck seeds, other cactus fruit, and some
insects. Lifestyle and way of eating affected the appearance and they
are less like each other. As a result of this process on the islands
emerged 13 species of finches, different sizes, habits and beak shape:
These differences and prompted Darwin to the idea of the principles of evolution. Here's another example of reel:
Our catamaran and two boats:
Meanwhile, the guys in the second group for the umpteenth time taking
pictures with the sea lion. We had to wait patiently until all had a
good nasnimal:
"Rock inscriptions" left sailors and pirates in the past. One of them
(her, unfortunately, did not have time to take) has been dated to the
beginning of the 19th century:
Pelican
Galapagos penguin. The world population has about 1500 pairs: 90% of them live on the islands of Fernandina and Isabella:
Galapagos crab:
Cormorants are not afraid of anything at all - swim up to the boat and knock his beak into the lens:
Unusual company:
View of the bay:
The guides are often trafficked by us under the catamaran:
Usually, we had dinner in the dining room, but this time covered in the fresh sea air:
Then swim:
Next point - Urbina Bay. In 1954, the increase in sea level led to the formation of the bay populated by many small lizards:
Here we first met turtles. First, however, has not been located and hiding from us in the bush:
In the 16th century, when the Spaniards reached the islands, they were
full of turtles. Seafarers and pirates used it as a "live" canned -
turtles can live for months in the holds and without food. Actually, the
"Galapagos" in Spanish translates to "turtle":
Carapace length can reach 120-125 cm, weight - 300 pounds, though these
only grow in large and humid islands. On small and arid turtle rarely
exceeds 50 kg:
Our group for the scale:
Turtles eat grass and shrubs, and may be no harm to the health of the
plant is poisonous to which the rest of the inhabitants of the island
did not even touch:
Darwin's finches to help the turtles to get rid of parasites - they pull
his head out of the shell and substitute birdies neck, clinging to
mites:
In 1835, Darwin brought to the island a Galapagos tortoise, which is
then transferred to the contents of the English zoo. She was named
Henrietta. In 2005, noted its 175th anniversary, and in November 2006
she died of old age.
