Endemic, Indigenous, Native, Migrant, and Introduced

Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki)

After four days in Quito, we flew to the Galápagos Islands for a week-long adventure on the Eclipse. Each night after dinner, the passengers gathered in the lounge where one of the naturalists on board briefed us on our excursion options for the next day, followed by an informative talk about the islands. On our first night, Naturalist Javier Cando explained ecological terms to describe how native a species is. 

Endemic: The organism is unique to one geographic location and nowhere else in the world. An endemic species may have originated here, or evolved into a separate species, or subspecies, due to geographic isolation. 

Indigenous (native): The organism occurs in the location naturally, without the aid of humans. These species are carried to the region by wind, water, or by another organism. 

Migrant: The animal travelled long distances in search of a new habitat.

Introduced: The organism is either deliberately or accidentally brought to a new ecosystem by human activity. 

We all laughed when Javier told us that he was endemic to the Galapagos Islands. I guess I can say that my sisters and I were introduced into the United States by our parents, who migrated here. 

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I was a bit timid about using the camera my brother-in-law loaned me for this trip. Even though it was a point-and-shoot, it was the fanciest camera I had ever used. It was during this afternoon on July 29th, 2007, that marked the beginning of my love affair with the camera, and for that, I owe a great debt to my brother-in-law.

***

For our first excursion, the Eclipse cruised to Las Bachas Beach , on the north end of Santa Cruz Island. As we came close to shore, we watched a flock Frigatebirds dive for supper.

Frigate Birds (Fregata)

I don’t know if they were the endemic Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificence) or the smaller, native Great Frigatebird (Fregata minor)...

Frigate Bird (Fregata)

…but I do know that both species of Frigatebirds are kleptoparasitic. These rogues love to mob flocks of Blue-footed Boobies and force them to regurgitate so that their catch can be intercepted.

Frigate Birds (Fregata) and Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii)

I was excited to explore the mossy boulders to see what I could discover. Javier told us to stay away from the moss, not only because it’s slippery, but because we are not to disturb any of the fauna or flora. Careful not to tread on any moss, I did manage to photograph this American Oystercatcher, endemic subspecies galapagensis. This uncommon resident has only around 200 pairs in the Galápagos Islands. 

American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus galapagensis)

American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus galapagensis)

A Yellow Warbler hopped between the rocks picking insects off the moss.

Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechial aureola)

Its race, aureola, is near-endemic and also known as the Mangrove Warbler.

Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechial aureola)

Looking across the rocky shore, I occasionally saw orange dots scampering about.

 

The Sally Lightfoot Crab is the most common crab along the west coast of the Americas and native to the Galápagos Islands. 

Sally Lightfoot Crab (Grapsus grapsus)

John Steinbeck‘s entertaining observations about how the Sally Lightfoot Crab lives up to its name can be read here.

Sally Lightfoot Crab (Grapsus grapsus)

Sally Lightfoot Crab (Grapsus grapsus)

We saw a solitary Galápagos Flamingo feeding on the far end of a saltwater lagoon when we joined Javier for brief walk. It is believed that the flamingo migrated from the Carribean and then evolved into an endemic subspecies here.

Galápagos Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber glyphorhynchus)

A Galápagos Mockingbird hopped around our small group, flitting back and forth between the sandy beach…

Galápagos mockingbird (Mimus parvulus)

…and the mangrove trees. 

Galápagos mockingbird (Mimus parvulus)

***

It was the mockingbird, not finches, that first caught Charles Darwin’s eye when he visited the Galápagos Islands at age 26 in 1835:

“I have specimens from four of the larger islands…The specimens from Chatham and Albemarle Isd. appear to be the same; but the other two are different. In each Isld. each kind is exclusively found. “  

Floreana Mockingbird or Charles Mockingbird
(Mimus trifasciatus) 

San Cristobal Mockingbird or Chatham Mockingbird
(Mimus melanotis) 

Sadly, many mockingbirds were driven to extinction, or near extinction, by rats introduced to the islands by buccaneers.

When Darwin returned to England, he used his mockingbird observation as the basis for concluding that the thirteen finches he observed in the Galápagos Islands all evolved separately due to the isolation of the islands.

*** 

Early during the walk, our 13-year-old son shared with Javier that his goal was to see a marine iguana on this trip. Javier smiled and told him that this could be arranged. Imagine my son’s excitement when he saw them on his very first excursion:

Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus)

Charles Darwin was not as enamored with them as my son was.

 “The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large (2-3 ft), disgusting clumsy Lizards. They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl & seek their prey from the Sea. I call them 'imps of darkness'. They assuredly well become the land they inhabit.” 

I have to agree with my son; what's not to love about this remarkable creature?

Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus)

Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus)

Once he saw them on land, my son's next goal to was to see them swim in the ocean. They swam gracefully, swishing their tails in smooth back and forth waves.

Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus)

As an extra bonus, we saw a green turtle swimming nearby.

Galápagos green turtle (Chelonia mydas agassisi) 

Galápagos green turtle (Chelonia mydas agassisi) 

The Galápagos green turtle is a subspecies of the green sea turtle we see in Hawaii. The species is indigenous, but the subspecies is endemic to the Galápagos Islands .

The same holds true for the Brown Pelican, with the amusing subspecies name urinator.

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis urinator)

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis urinator)

When we returned to the beach, we sat among the Galápagos sea lions.

Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki)

Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki)

…and all cooed when we saw the baby sea lions nursing.

Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki)

This  small beach was a great choice for our first excursion because it provided an intimate setting where the 47 passengers of the Eclipse had a chance to become acquainted with each other.

Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) and Homo Sapien

Even though we Homo Sapiens are an introduced species into the Galápagos Islands, it is my sincere hope that we will not have a negative impact to the abundance of this ecology.

***

Works Cited

"File:Mimus Melanotis.jpg." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mimus_melanotis.jpg>.

"File:Mimus Trifasciatus.jpg." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mimus_trifasciatus.jpg>.

"Grapsus Grapsus." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapsus_grapsus>.

"INaturalist.org · Galápagos, EC." INaturalist.org · A Community for Naturalists. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.inaturalist.org/places/12990>.

"Marine Iguana." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Iguana>.

Stewart, Paul. Galapagos: the Islands That Changed the World. New Haven, Connecticut, CT: Yale UP, 2007. Print.

Swash, Andy, Rob Still, and Ian Lewington. Birds, Mammals, and Reptiles of the Galápagos Islands: an Identification Guide. New Haven: Yale UP, 2005. Print.

Quito – Historic Town Center

Arupo Tree in Independence Square, Quito, Ecuador

After our visit to the museum on the equator, I will now take you to the historic town center of Quito.

Quito was established by the Quitu tribe way back in the first millennium. By 980 CE the Quitu were conquered by the Caras Tribe. Between 1534 and 1556, the Spanish invaded the city, executed the ruling tribe’s leader, named the city San Francisco de Quito, and established Roman Catholicism in the city. Drawing on the native tribes for slave labor, the Spanish began construction only weeks after the invasion. The oldest religious building in all of South America is the San Francisco Convent; its unadorned architecture stayed true to its Franciscan roots:

The attached San Francisco church is a blend of Spanish and Mudéjar architecture and the focal point of the cobblestone square:

The plaza is on the site where the palace of the Incan ruler, Auqui Francisco Tupatauchi, once existed and it was the location where indigenous tribes traded goods for centuries:

The white domed church is La Compañía de Jesús:

From here the steep streets lead to the hill El Panecillo with the statue of the Virgin of Quito:

Just around the corner from San Francisco Plaza is the Jesuit church La Compañía de Jesús with its beautiful baroque columns :

After 300 years of colonial rule, Quito gained independence from the Spanish in 1822 under the command of Simón Bolívar. The city was annexed to Gran Colombia until it dissolved in 1830 when Quito became the capital of Ecuador.

If you are wondering where we saw that beautiful flowering tree in the first photo, it's called the Arupo tree  and we saw it in full bloom in Independence Square:

Quito, Ecuador – Latitude 00° 00’ 00”

On our way to the Galapagos Islands in the summer of 2007, we stayed in Quito, Ecuador for a few days. There are two equator-related tourist attractions in Quito. The monument at Mitad del Mundo was built before electronic global positioning devices were invented and, unfortunately, it is a few hundred yards away from the actual middle of the earth. Once this was discovered, an enterprising family built an unabashed tourist trap named Museo de Sitio Inti-Ñan located at the equator, or Latitude 00° 00’ 00”. The museum has a staff of English-speaking guides who take you through the replicas of native houses:

A burial site. The deceased is placed in a tight fetal position in a pot like the one on the right and the remaining artifacts are for the journey:

Other artifacts:

 

A grizzly, shrunken head:

A Castor Bean plant:

 

I love the sundial indicating when it was morning (tuta manta), noon (pajta), or night (chisi). That would be a welcome brand of time-keeping! The native tribes did not have a numbering system; these numbers are a modern addition. Note how the numbers range from six to six because at the equator the sun always rises and sets at six.

There was a sign that claimed: “On the equator your weight is less than in your country because of the bulge of the earth. Thus being farther from the center of the earth, the force of gravity is less.”  And here I thought the earth was round. When I asked how much less my weight would be, they said it was about a kilo. Of course, we will ignore the fact that our mass remains the same. 

The guide then performed an experiment meant to demonstrate the Coriolus force. She placed a sink on the northern hemisphere, where the water drains counter-clockwise and then moved the sink a few feet over to the southern hemispehere where the water drains clockwise.  When placed exactly on the equator, the water drains straight down. She placed a few small leaves to help show the movement of the water.  

We were invited to balance an egg on a nail, a feat that can only be accomplished twice a year elsewhere on earth:

There are plenty of websites refuting the authenticity of these experiments. Regardless, I thought they were very interesting, entertaining and they underscore the unique properties of the equator.

My husband told me an interesting equator story about an aircraft that supposedly had polar confusion when it crossed the equator. The guidance system assumed its orientation to be relative to the North Pole. When it cross the equator, the guidance system thought the plane flipped over, so it “righted” itself into the upside down position. It is probably an urban myth, but at least one source reported that it was rumored that early versions of Microsoft’s F-16 Flight Simulator game had this same “feature” (as we software types like to call bugs). You can read more about it here.