It is nearly impossible to come up with a favourite animal from the Galapagos Islands, but the Land Iguana was definitely one of my favourites.
Their sometimes bright yellow colour was pretty cool, as was watching them eat. Their main source of food is the prickly-pear cactus and I saw some land iguanas fighting over this favourite food at South Plaza Island. It was kind of amusing watch them engage in a tug-of-war battle over a cactus pod.
Sure, they’re not exactly cute and cuddly like baby seals, but with their wrinkly skin, big claws and bumpy-scaly heads I think they have their own charm.
Great shot, Red! The land iguana was definitely one of our favorite Galapagos species on our recent trip as well, but I think they were edged out slightly by the Galapagos Sea Lion. Interacting with them in the water during our daily snorkeling excursions was simply incredible– an experience we’ll never forget!
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Thanks Bret! Ah, the Sea Lions are fun for sure too! Such an amazing place isn’t it?
Good write-up with information. Galapagos is one destination that i would like to travel too especially to view these amazing species – some of the highest number’s of endemic species found in any parts of the world. Also would like to visit the Darwin centre.
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Hey Abhishek,
The Galapagos is a special place…and the Charles Darwin Centre’s are worth a visit. The one on Santa Cruz is most popular and feels a bit like a zoo, I visited three of them in total. I preferred the one on Isabela Island, as it was not busy and they take time to teach you more about the conservation efforts.
Wow, I never even heard of South Plaza Island and we spent four days on Santa Cruz before our cruise. We didn’t do enough (i.e. any) research into the various islands before we visited, which explains how we missed this beautiful creature and the frigate nesting area on North Seymour. I hope that Kevin does not see this post because I already can’t get him to stop talking about our “next trip to the Galapagos”…
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I think that a lot of people miss out on the Land Iguana. They’re not on as many islands so some cruises skip them, although there kept at the CDRS on Santa Cruz.
Argh, don’t get me started on how we MISSED the Darwin Center! We thought it would be included on our cruise the first day so we never went, but we read the itinerary wrong — the others on our boat went the morning of the day we boarded mid-day 🙁
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