Why Stuff Lives There

Scientists are pretty sure that the Galapagos was never connected to the mainland, and it formed in the ocean. That means that everything living there had to cross the ocean to get to it. A lot of the animals came from the Caribbean and North, Central, and South America. Land Iguanas, Cormorants, Giant Tortoises, Pelicans, and Boobies are thought to have came from South America. The Humboldt Current brought Fur Seals and Penguins. The land mammals had to be taken by ship. The land birds and California sea lions arrived from North America, while Pink Flamingos and the ancestor of Darwin’s Finches arrived from the Caribbean. It is a amazing and unlikely thing that all these animals could make the perilous journey across the ocean. But there are other factors if you look closer, seeds clinging to birds, birds getting swept off their migratory patterns, and much more. There are types of animals that you won’t see, but it all fits together. The absence of large herbivorous land mammals let giant tortoises live there. They are having trouble because humans are bringing domesticated animals that are taking their grass. There are also few aquatic animals and amphibians. The thing threatening to take out Galapagos species most is invasive species. Humans started in the 1600’s, bringing house mice and black rats, one of the ones not on purpose. Then in the 1800s settlers brought a bunch of domestic and invasive animals, pigs, dogs, cats, donkeys, horses, goats and cattle. New species are being introduced, and only two of the fourteen main islands are pretty much unaffected. But some of the domesticated animals went feral, and pigs eat sea turtle eggs, dogs attack land iguanas, and goats, goats were a MAJOR problem (see odds and ends) and still may be. The animals on Galapagos had no time to adapt to the new animals. Something I find really sad is that on the island Pinzon, there are only adult tortoises. Rats have been taking out eggs since they came. The way that we can help the Galapagos is by not hurting it even more, protecting what we have and having tourists be extremely careful. The water is filled with nutrients around the Galapagos, since it has 5 big ocean currents all around it. The ocean currents affect the oceans ecology both on the islands and in the water. It also affects the climate. The weather is my kind of nice, not too hot. You could find that very surprising because it is on the equator. This is because one of the five currents is the Great Southern Polar Current, figured out by Charles Darwin (do I seriously need to say which section that is?). The one and only hot season is the dry season (see Climate for more). The Humboldt current is also the Great Southern Polar, in case you get confused, named after Alexander Von Humboldt. It goes up northward next to South America. It is cold and full of nutrients. It is from Antarctica. And yes, of course it’s how the penguins and seals got there, what do you think they did, miss their cruise ship? Earth’s rotations and seasonal winds steer it west at the equator where it joins the South Equatorial Current and hits the Galapagos.The cold water helps keep the environment cooler.The cold water helps keep the environment cooler. The wet season means it is lot more green, but if you want to see more go to that section (Climate). The third current, the North Equatorial Countercurrent goes West to East, and it goes inbetween the other two. The last is the Cromwell Current, also called the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent. It is very important. It is 300 feet under and also West to East. It is also an important source of the nutrient filled cool water the Galapagos needs. It gets redirected to the surface when it reaches the Galapagos. The reason it is so nutrient filled is that when creatures and plants pass on in the ocean, the drop down to the bottom. There nutrients are swept off by those currents at the bottom, the coldest, then phytoplankton can live off that. Phytoplankton use photosynthesis so they live near the surface. That causes there to be more marine life, and there is a ton of phytoplankton in the Galapagos. So basicly, there is a ton of marine life, and other life in the Galapagos. That concludes Why Stuff Lives There.