It’s difficult to describe the magical wonder of exploring Galapagos -the islands on the Pacific Ocean which reinforced Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution after his 1835 visit to this natural laboratory of evolution. We truly enjoyed observing the marine iguanas, the world’s only sea-going lizard, in the wild, snorting out salt water through their nostrils (which was incidentally the only noise they ever make), coming to the shore from a swim, or simply sunning their cold-blooded bodies on the lava rocks. At night, the marine iguana sleeps in burrows to conserve their body heat.

The subspecies of marine iguanas on Isabela island is the largest of all the seven subspecies. When we saw these big iguanas, we were over-awed by their huge size.

Like all other native animals in Galapagos, the marine iguanas are given a protected status enforced by Ecuadorian and international authorities.

 Here’s the giant marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus albemarlensis)

 A giant marine iguana on the sandy beach

 

 

Look how its magnificent crest runs down from head to the tail

To many people, it may look like a hideous creature. Even Charles Darwin wrote this of the marine iguana: “It is a hideous-looking creature, of a dirty black colour, stupid, and sluggish in its movements.” We find it so beautiful that we would spent hours just photographing them. And contrary to its looks, it is very gentle and tame. The juveniles are slightly afraid of us stepping on them though.

 Don’t miss it - the giant marine iguana is near the center of this photo. It’s so big that it could be overlooked for a rock from a distance. In fact, we always had to walk very carefully on the rocks so as not to step on the black marine iguanas.

 A pelican swooping in for a meal

 

 Grace and the gentle giant that is more than 1-meter long

 This is a young Hybrid Iguana - the result of a marine and land iguana mating together

The young are vulnerable to predation by frigatebirds, herons, hawks, snakes, as well as wild cats and dogs on the island.

 Marine Iguana

After swimming in the cold waters of the Humboldt and Cromwell currents, the ectothermic marine iguanas must warm up by basking on the volcanic rock, both before and after feeding trips.

Pedro with an almost black giant marine iguana

No one but us here

 A crab

 A hybrid iguana has a characteristic band of markings on its back

 Hybrid iguana

Isla Isabela’s English name is ‘Albermarle’

 Another marine iguana coming ashore from the sea

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 12:45 am and is filed under Ecuador, Galapagos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.