John C. Kricher - Galápagos: A Natural History

Galpagos

A NATURAL HISTORY

SECOND EDITION

Galpagos

A NATURAL HISTORY

SECOND EDITION

John Kricher & Kevin Loughlin

Photographs by Kevin Loughlin

Princeton University Press

Princeton and Oxford

Copyright 2006 by Princeton University Press

Copyright 2022 by John Kricher and Kevin Loughlin

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ISBN (pbk.) 978-0-691-21724-6

ISBN (e-book) 978-0-691-24253-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022942040

Version 1.0

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

Editorial: Robert Kirk and Megan Mendona

Production Editorial: Karen Carter

Text Design: D & N Publishing, Wiltshire, UK

Jacket/Cover Design: Wanda Espaa

Production: Steven Sears

Publicity: Caitlyn Robson and Matthew Taylor

Copyeditor: Lucinda Treadwell

Jacket/Cover Credit: Kevin Loughlin / Wildside Nature Tours

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A red-footed booby passes in front of a near full moon.

John wishes to state categorically that the primary force behind the revision of this book was Kevin Loughlin of Wildside Nature Tours. It was Kevins idea to revise the text where needed and to reformat the book with a cornucopia of photographs to accompany the text. So John wishes to thank his friend Kevin for launching what turned out to be a very satisfying collaboration. We both want to thank Robert Kirk of Princeton University Press for his receptivity to the idea that the book be revised and to feature a rich photographic tableau. We also thank our literary agent, Russell Galen, for his enthusiastic support and skills that quickly resulted in a contract satisfactory to all parties.

John Kricher wishes to thank Peter Alden, Martha Steele, Martha Vaughan, and Kevin Loughlin for their efforts in regard to previous trips that got John to the Galpagos. Most of all, John thanks his wife Martha Vaughan for making him as happy in marriage as Charles Darwin apparently was.

Kevin would like to thank his parents, Russell and Virginia Loughlin, for instilling in him the love for nature and travel that led him down such a wondrous and fulfilling life path. In addition, Kevin would like to thank John Kricher for the honor and privilege of working with him on this amazing project.

Ecuadorian guide, Edison Buenao, and local Galpagos naturalists Hanzel Martinetti and Rogelio Pedro Guaycha deserve great appreciation for their enthusiasm and knowledge that contributed to Kevins love of Ecuador and the Galpagos Islands. Kevin would also like to recognize the Andean Travel Company (ATC) for their years of exceptional service in managing the quality yachts and crews Wildside Nature Tours has used for their trips.

Kevins wife, Lisa Favretto, to whom he promised a lifetime of adventure during his marriage proposal from atop Bartolom Island, deserves so much more than a thank you. Her endless love, support, and encouragement, during this project and throughout their lives together, has been immeasurable.

We also wish to thank the Princeton University Press production team led by Karen Carter, as well as Bob Bettendorf and our copy editor, Lucinda Treadwell.

And finally, we wish to acknowledge Charles Darwin. He had much to do with why you are holding this book. All the chapter titles appear as phrases in Darwins writings about the islands.

FOREWORD

SCOTT WEIDENSAUL

There really is no place on Earth quite like the Galpagos Islands. If I ever doubted the truth of that statement, it was driven home to me on the very first morning of my very first visit some years ago.

Brown noddy at sunset.

Seven or eight of us were perched along the sides of a motorized inflatable boat, the kind of craft universally referred to as a panga in the Galpagos, skimming across the waves toward Genovesa Island, the most northeasterly of the archipelago and famed for its birdlife. Clouds of frigatebirds, shearwaters, boobies, gulls, and noddies swarmed the air; Galpagos sea lions porpoised beside us. A single red-footed booby circled us a few timesthen landed gently on the head of a woman sitting beside me and placidly rode the rest of the way to shore on her hat like an animated weathervane, to the womans (and everyones) shock and delight.

Swallow-tailed gull.

Galpagos is like that. There is a pervasive, Eden-before-the-fall feel that begins the moment you step off the plane on, say, the island of Baltra, walking up the entryway to the main airport past mustard-yellow land iguanas and gray lava lizards that barely stir out of your path, while Darwins finches hop unconcernedly around your feet. In the days that follow, you may have a penguin swim up and peer at you, from a few intimate inches away, through your snorkeling mask, or have an Espaola mockingbird poke inquisitively at your toes, then glare at you in disappointment for not being edible before it tries to rifle your pack. A sea lion mother, quietly nursing her newborn pup, opens a lazy eye to glance at you just a couple of yards away, then goes back to snoozing, while marine iguanas looking like little Godzillas clamber out of the surf by your feet. In the highlands of Santa Cruz, a giant tortoise the size of a sofa lumbers by without a second glance at the humans staring in wonder and awe.

Park naturalists will often collect skulls, like this one from a booby, to share with future groups.

Sea lion skulls may be found along the beaches as we explore.

If you give them a chance, these islands and their wild inhabitants will exceed every expectation you bring to the Galpagos. No wonder that these rugged islands, isolated 600 miles out in the Pacific Ocean, top many an ecotourists bucket list.