Fernandina Island- Day of the Iguana(s)

One of the most frequent questions I get about the Galápagos is along the lines of “What is your favorite [place/animal/thing]?”^*  I’ve pretty much always been at a loss for an answer- there’s simply so much wonderful-ness to have a favorite. 

But this time, although there were lots of exciting new places, I did, finally, find a favorite.  Two actually.  One for the land things, and one for the marine.  This entry is about the land site:  Fernandina Island, which we visited in the afternoon of December 7^th, 2012. 

Fernandina Island, seen as we approached from Isabela

Fernandina is the youngest of the genuine Galápagos islands (there’s a younger proto-island), farthest to the west of the archipelago.  The volcano that formed it, Volcan Cumbre, is still quite active, having last erupted in 2009 (and yes, I was hoping for some activity while we were nearby, but no dice).  The area open to tourists is Punta Espinosa, shown in diagram form here from Wildlife of the Galápagos, Fitter, Fitter, and Hosking, Princeton University Press, 2002: 

Schematic of the Fernandina site open to visitors.

            We arrived by panga/dinghy and landed on the lava rock in a little shallow lagoon- a semi-dry landing.  Fernandina immediately became my favorite island.  Why?  5 words:  Hordes. Of. Huge. Marine. Iguanas.  I mean, lots of them, all over the place.  Fernandina boasts the largest marine iguanas in the Galápagos- I knew that, but I was not prepared for the sheer number of large (1.5 meters, maybe more) ocean-going reptiles. 

For those who  have not heard, the Galápagos Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is the only true marine lizard, and is found only in the Galápagos.  They swim by tucking their limbs close to their bodies, and undulate their tail, which is compressed vertically to act as a paddle. 

Swimming marine iguanas.  The crabs in the foreground are called Sally Lightfoot Crabs (Graspus graspus).  There is also a marine turtle underwater, between the left-hand crab and the upper iguana.  It is probably a green sea turtle.

Their food is marine algae, which they eat either from rocks in the intertidal zone or while underwater (more on this in another entry, when I have pics to show).  To eat underwater, they cling to the rocks with an impressive set of claws, which also allow the smaller ones to climb pretty sheer vertical cliff faces: 

The forefoot of a marine iguana.  The claws make them very good climbers.  Donna and I watched a 25-cm specimen climb up a vertical wall pretty much as fast as it could walk across a flat surface.

Feeding underwater has a pretty big cost- the water is cold, and marine iguanas are ectotherms- every second they’re in the water, they lose body heat, and are in danger of becoming immobile.  In order to feed at depth (a stunt only the larger iguanas can get away with), they need to soak up some heat from the sun beforehand, so they spend a lot of time on the rocks, facing into the sun, getting warm

He looks thoughtful, but really he's just sunbathing.  Isabela, the largest island in the archipelago, is in the background. 

Marine iguanas catching some sun.  These guys are actually a little blacker than they look- the black lizard/black rock motif plays hob with a camera's white balance. 

They also bundle together at night, in heartwarming displays that range from cute couples scenes

If I ever do a Christmas card, this is likely to be the picture.

To piles of dozens of iguanas

A whole bunch of huddling iguanas.  Isabela in the background again.

Huddling together decreases surface area to volume, meaning that they lose less heat overnight (I had to slip this in). 

The sheer quantity of marine iguanas, swimming, sunning, huddling, snorting (they excrete salt near their nostrils, and “sneeze” it out periodically to clear the nostrils or for a territorial display) made this island a highlight for me.  But lest you think Fernandina is only about the iguanas, I’ll mention that there are also the obligatory sea lions...

Three iguanas and a youngish sea lion

More iguanas and a sea lion.  There were, in fact, several sea lions, but I was pretty sick of them by this point.

...as well as another lizard species, the lava lizard (Microlophus sp.), which get along fine with the iguanas:

Distant relatives

And grow to unusual size here, although you cannot tell from this photo, because I forgot to include a scale.  This fellow was upward of 25 cm

A largish lava lizard

There were also a few Galápagos Hawks (Buteo galapagoensis).  I was particularly happy about seeing this guy, because I spotted him before our guide

And apparently, the hawks are concerned about their numbers on the island, and working to increase it

Love was (almost) in the air.  Or at least perched precariously on a branch.

The hawks probably made these Galápagos doves (Zenaida galapagoensis), another endemic species, nervous.  I was really hoping to get a pic of exactly 2, for a “Twelve Days of Christmas” thing.

Another big, exciting moment was seeing the Flightless Cormorants (Phalacrocorax harrisi)- I’ll say more about them later, but here, they were nesting. 

A nesting flightless cormorant

A closer look at the nest indicates that the cormorants subscribe to the Davy Jones (the one from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies) school of home furnishings.  The nest is made of ocean products- seaweeds, sea urchins, and the like.  I guess when you nest in lava fields, there aren’t a lot of options

Closer view of the cormorant, and its eclectic approach to nest-building

Lest I ignore the plants (and I don’t mean to, but there’s not a lot of plant life on a lava field), Fernandina was also home to one of my favorite Galápagos plants, the Lava Cactus (Brachycereus nesioticus), which is a very cool colonizer of the lava.

Several lava cacti

That’s Isabela in the background, incidentally- more on it soon.  The lava cacti are just really neat- slow growing and determined.  There are some scattered around the islands- on Bartolome, Genovesa, and Santiago for certain.  But here was one of the largest colonies I’ve seen.  And it looks like more to come:

Cute little spiky baby cactus!

This was also where I saw my first large whale while here, but it wasn’t in good shape: 

B(l)eached whale skeleton.  You can also see the mangroves in the background and then the highlands of Fernandina, where we did not go. 

I didn’t take a picture closer up, because on closer examination it was pretty clearly a chimera- the head did not match the rest of the body.  I suspect some visitors and guides did some rearranging (piling up of bones and rearranging them happens regularly here).  Later that day, while sailing we did see a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutrostrata probably), and even saw it breaching, but I couldn’t get a photo of it. 

So that’s Fernandina- remote, pretty barren along the beach, and full of lizards.  Here are a couple last pics of them: 

One more iguana- and a couple of chitons in the water

Farewell Fernandina, until next time!

^*The most-often asked question is “Wow- do you need someone to carry your bags?”  Really.