*Galapagos Iguanas back to Baltra
The island of Baltra in the Galapagos Islands archipelago became populated with land iguanas that had disappeared during the U.S. military occupation in World War II, said on Wednesday the Galapagos National Park.
�
A total of 420 species of iguanas Conolophus subcristatus or also known as yellow iguanas, one of the world’s most existent endemic species, were reintroduced in Baltra in the last 28 years to live and reproduce in their natural state.
�
According to The Galapagos National Park, 74 of these reptiles were taken this week to finalize the reproduction agenda in Baltra, held since 1980.
�
“The goal was to repopulate the island Baltra with endemic iguanas, which, for various reasons, disappeared during the occupation of the island by a U.S. military base in the Second World War”, the Galapagos National Park representatives mentioned.
They noted that the species was saved thanks to a scientific expedition in 1933 that introduced 70 animals on an experimental basis from Baltra to North Seymour island-with similar characteristics-and of which the Galapagos National Park rescued several of these animals to relocate to a breeding centre and breeding in captivity.
�
“After a long process of adapting to the new eco-system in 1991 they helped the return of the first 35 iguanas to Baltra”
�
The Galapagos archipelago, with about 19 000 inhabitants, is located approximately 1 000 km from the coast of Ecuador and from three decades ago is part of the Natural Heritage of Humanity, although Unesco declared it at risk in 2007 due to increased appearance of invasive species.
Composed by 13 main islands and 17 islets in the Pacific Ocean, Galapagos still has a unique flora and fauna in the world as the giant tortoises that gave its name to that region.
The “Enchanted” islands served as a natural laboratory to English scientist Charles Darwin to devise his theory on the evolution of species.
Article taken from: Diario El Comercio-Ecuador
Posted
on
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 5:58 pm under
This is just a warning to anyone considering taking the trip offered by LatinAmerican4Less to the Galapagos that includes staying in a hotel in Santa Cruz. DON’T DO IT!!! You end up spending all your time traveling (45 minutes by bus to get to the port, 3 hours by boat to get to the island), and you don’t spend very much time actually on one of the islands. And next to NO time walking around (maybe 1 hour in 3 days). The hotel is awful and the boat they put you in is not what they indicate you will be taking on their web site. Finally, the “guides” (I use the term loosely) are not knowledgable and their English is negligible. Because I had been to the Galapagos Islands previously, so I had some idea of what to expect. This was an awful trip - totally not worth the cost, plus they nickel and dime you to death. DON’T TAKE IT!
May 6th, 2008 at 2:47 pmI just wanted to thank rosiesmall for taking my call yesterday and also for caring enough to tell us about her experience in Galapagos. We regret that she have had some inconveniences during her trip and that is why I personally directed our local operator in Ecuador her valuable suggestions and recommendations in order to improve our service. Nevertheless, I must mention that we were surprised with her comments since this tour package has been sold to more than 100 passengers during the past 5 months with the same hotel in Santa Cruz and till now we had not had any complaint. We always appreciate customer comments and consider these carefully as we might adjust our tour itineraries if needed. Rosiesmall, thanks again for your valuable feedback and remember that we are looking forward to giving us the opportunity to make all the arrangements for your next trip to Iguazu Falls…
Klaus S.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:30 pmLatinAmerica4less