- Author: Karen Metz
My last blog focused on some of the trees and plants I had encountered in the Galapagos. This time I'd like to share the experience of visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station with you. The Station is very near the Galapagos National Park Service Headquarters, just outside the town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. The Research Station is the working arm of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands. The Foundation is an international, independent nongovernmental organization that advises the Park Service. Their mission is to conduct research to guide conservation efforts, run educational programs to increase local support for conservation, train Ecuadorian biologists and educators and host visiting scientists from all over the globe.
Everyone's favorite part was the Giant Tortoise Captive Breeding Center where we got to see tortoises at all stages of their life cycle. They grouped the animals by size so that the larger animals wouldn't bully the younger ones. Some baby tortoises of threatened species are brought to the center and kept until they get to about the 5 pound size. At that point they are released back to their island of capture. Once they are that size they are felt to be fairly safe from predators. Scientists became involved trying to support tortoises when certain species became threatened and some extinct. It was thought to be especially appropriate since humans had been involved with large changes in the tortoise populations secondary to taking of the adults for fresh meat in the sailing ship days and introduction of alien animal species that were predators of baby tortoises, such as dogs and cats. They are doing an incredible job. Later in the day we went to the highlands and were able to see some giant tortoises in the wild.
Other parts of the Research Center were more familiar. They have a huge herbarium with over 40,000 botanical specimens. In the exhibit hall there were eye catching displays of seeds of plants endemic and native to their islands and another of seeds that had washed up on their beaches. Outdoor displays taught visitors about the fight against alien plants that are almost always invasive and detailed their struggles against the blackberry vine. Another panel described their fight against cottony cushion scale which was threatening 90 different species of plants that they are treating with the first intentionally introduced species to act as biological control, the Australian lady bug.
Later in the evening two researches lectured to us about their research involving marine debris. They are monitoring plastics that are washing up on beaches and counting organisms that have attached themselves to the plastic during its sojourn in the ocean. Aside from the litter and entanglement issues that plastic debris can cause, they feel it is an important component of invasive species spread. Their studies are not complete but to date 25% of the samples have biofouling organisms.
Being so far away from home, it was inspiring to see people grappling with many of the same issues that we do. Because of their island home with its incredible number of species found nowhere else in the world, their battle is even more time critical than our own.