There are very few places left on Earth where the human species really doesn't come first. The Galapagos Islands is one of those special places, where the flora and especially the fauna, rule the land. After these volcanic islands were formed, millions of years ago, life slowly came to the chain of islands by air and by sea. Creatures who made it here one way or another, found few other organisms with which to compete for survival on the land. The Galapagos Islands are isolated, and therefore have provide an ideal environment for relatively rapid species expansion. Over the centuries, creatures who arrived in the Galapagos slowly evolved, adapting to the extreme island conditions, evolving into endemic species. And endemic species is one which is found nowhere else on earth.
Today the Galapagos Islands are a world treasure of fascinating, beautiful and unique species, where travellers from all over the world visit just to witness what nature has created on this magnificent, one-of-a-kind chain of islands. Humans have known about the Galapagos Islands since the 1500s, when they were "discovered" accidently by people from Panama. However, nobody really paid any attention to the islands until three hundred years later, when the Galapagos' most famous visitor arrived. His name was Charles Darwin, and his powers of careful
observation of species, his astute scientific thinking, and his pursuit of knowledge led him to develop his world-changing Theory of Evolution as a direct result of coming to the Galapagos Islands. His observation of the variations in finches on the islands led to his theories of natural selection, which is also known as survival of the fittest.
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More than 60,000 visitors a year arrive in the Galapagos Islands to witness for themselves the wildlife on the islands. They come to see the adorable and unique blue-footed boobies, the Galapagos tortoises, the flightless cormorants, the giant iguanas, and the sea lions. They dive into the waters of the Galapagos and seemillions and millions of fish, turtles, rays, and yes, sharks, all living together under the surface of the water, making for some of the best snorkeling and scuba diving in the entire world.
In fact, the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands is so varied and diverse, there is so much to say, we've divided our Wildlife section into four sections, categorized by type of organism.
Wildlife on the Galapagos Islands
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