[Music]
from time to time a secant brings death
to the Galapagos Islands aleinu a
meteorological phenomenon which is
becoming notorious all over the world
heats up the waters on the Pacific coast
and causes terrible death and
destruction to animal species
[Music]
but Galapagos is not dying the arrival
of El Nino is just a part of the ancient
cycle of death and rebirth a reminder of
its Genesis and a repetition on an
infinitely smaller scale for how life
colonized these islands and transformed
them into an earthly paradise
a fissure in the Earth's crust the
boiling burning material from the center
of the earth bubbles up to the surface
I am sulfur in silicon at over 1,000
degrees centigrade something like this
must have been the origin of the
Galapagos Islands but with one
difference the birth of the Galapagos
Islands occurred underwater
[Music]
at first glance the landscape could not
seem more desert a handful of burnt-out
islets
almost a thousand kilometers away from
the nearest coast it seems impossible
that life could reach this land of
volcanoes and yet from the very moment
that they appeared on the surface 5
million years ago the Galapagos started
to prepare themselves to house
life-forms
[Music]
erosion this was probably the first
stamp wins and water currents broke up
the volcanic rock and a gradual process
in which enough level of soil was formed
for a seed to germinate the wind and the
water joined forces in this job not only
did they erode the rock and so create
soil but they also brought real
specialists from the continent that
accelerated the process
Aldi and likens split up the rock
forming sediments and eventually soil
then the chain became unstoppable
[Music]
this is brekkie arias a specialist in
the colonization of lava
it hardly needs soil to survive but it's
little roots work on the lava by
fragmenting it in such a way that a path
is cleared for more complex plants but
how did the brackish area's seed reach
this lover and an even more difficult
question to answer
how did animal life get here
the Galapagos arose from the sea so
unlike most islands they never had any
contact with the continent all the
living creatures that inhabit these
islands had to cross a thousand
kilometres of sea without fresh water
and exposed to the equatorial Sun to
reach these new desert islands
[Music]
seabirds must have been the first
visitors to the galapagos islands they
have more than sufficient strength to
arrive here from the continent and the
trade winds must have made the journey
easier
at that time the islands must have had
no life whatsoever but this did not
concern them if truth be told it
actually worked in their favor
[Music]
frigate birds see girls and gannets like
so many other seabirds found their food
in the sea and used the barren volcanic
rocks a stopover points where they can
get their strength back but as there
were no enemies or predators from which
to protect themselves
it was also a wonderful place to hatch
their eggs especially for those species
that lay their eggs on the ground
without eating bothering to make a mess
[Music]
birds such as these blue footed boobies
or those that nested on the rocks must
have been the first to breed in the
Galapagos in the beginning there were no
trees so birds that made their nests in
branches had to wait until the
vegetation became more complex a process
to which the birds themselves
contributed by bringing scenes that had
stuck to their feathers or legs or in
greater quantities in their stomachs
from which they ejected them in their
feces
even before the complex plant world of
the Galapagos had developed completely
the first land-based vertebrates must
barai from the same pieces of wood
pieces of continental vegetation or
hollow light trunks became floating
islands on which some animals managed to
cross the sea from the continental
coasts it was very difficult for an
phibian zand mammals but among reptiles
real specialists and desert conditions
success eventually arrived
land iguanas could will have arrived
sailing on floating logs this must have
been the case at first although they
only managed to colonize the Galapagos
when plant life provided them with a
source of food
[Music]
and opuntia one of the many species of
giant cactus that inhabit the islands
[Music]
the fruit in the clattered of the upon
tears are the main source of food for
the land-based iguanas of the Galapagos
Islands its tissue structure conserves
water and the reptiles obtain food and
water at the same time the fruit
contains the seeds which are protected
by sharp spines but the iguanas scaly
mouth is designed to conquer these
defenses and in the long term the cactus
also benefits as a payment for the food
the iguanas excrete the opuntia seeds on
their travels around the islands and so
the giant cacti gradually colonized new
territories
when the galapagos plantlife allowed
birds that nested in the trees to breed
a rapid process of colonization occurred
which is continued until today
and as might be expected the first
settlers were seabirds a colony of
frigate bird young few birds make such
spectacular efforts to find a mate in
what will be the nest the male's make
their gullets acts will up to attract
the females attention this process
involves an enormous deuce of energy but
the effort is worthwhile
the female frigate birds only hatch
every two years and they only lay one
egg which makes them more demanding when
it comes to choosing a mate
the aim of the male's display is to show
the females how strong and resistant
they are to qualities which they will
need when it comes to bringing up their
small number of offspring the only chick
will take from 7 to 8 weeks to raise and
the parents will have to take turns at
the work the job is so hard that each
week in the nest the adult on duty loses
1/5 of its body weight which means that
only the strongest survive and these are
those that make the most dramatic mating
display
the blue footed boobies are much more
prolific the nest is little more than a
clearing in the sand in which they will
lay two or three eggs incubation on the
ground has its disadvantages heat
without any protection and the shade is
terrible and may be dangerous but the
boobies have learned some tricks to make
the stifling heat more bearable the so
called gula ventilation is one of these
tricks a quick movement of the folds of
the skin under their beaks generates a
current of air that evaporates humidity
and cools them down
also these self-sacrificing parents know
how to make use of currents of fresh air
when the wind gets up they position
their bodies so that when they fluff out
their feathers the breeze cools their
bags
the breath of the chicks occurs in
sequence as does the lane with a period
of three to five days between them this
has a terrible but practical purpose if
there is a good year and there are
plenty of fish the boobies can raise
three chicks but if there is a food
shortage the largest chick will receive
all the food and the others will
gradually die off according to their
size a dramatic way of ensuring the
survival of the greatest possible number
of offspring
the boobies also have a dramatic mating
display Levante of the Galapagos
albatross is even more complex in
spectacular
at four or five years of age the
albatrosses returned to the island
Hispaniola to find a mate these birds
can live for 50 years and they mate for
life so the choice of a partner is a
crucial time for them courting is
governed by a very complex ritual that
seems to combine dance steps with
occasional fencing contests
[Music]
not only the young participating
courting couples that did not manage to
raise any young the year before joining
this extraordinary dance and the
occasional bachelor bird dares to try to
steal another's partner
[Music]
after finding a mate the albatrosses
returned to the same place year after
year to reproduce and as in the case of
the boobies lay their eggs on the ground
incubation lasts for two months and both
adults take turns in Galapagos there can
be no room for error when caring for an
egg
an albatross goes out to fish and leaves
her vulnerable eggs for a few minutes
the egg is a source of food and water
and the mockingbirds know it
[Music]
once the Ixion's broken the lava lizards
take advantage of the occasion
[Music]
michelle is also an irreplaceable source
of calcium for them however in spite of
the apparent tragedy everything forms
part of an overall balance the
mockingbirds have also hatched and the
chick will benefit from the energy field
albatross egg
in Galapagos it is easy to see how each
animal depends on the species that share
its territory but there is something
common to all of these species which
goes beyond the frontiers that mark each
one of the islands a life support system
shared by own life in Galapagos the
scene
[Music]
under the waters that bathe the
Galapagos Archipelago there are an
infinite number of habitats brimming
over with life
[Music]
unlike the islands these are open
systems and many species pass from one
to the other without encountering any
physical obstacles
[Music]
this natural wealth is due to the
particular conditions of a pacific ocean
in the galapagos area where the trade
winds and the ocean currents combined to
create an annual cycle with slight
variations
[Music]
cold waters arrive in the Peru current
from the south a Cromwell equatorial
current from the west and the Panama can
from the north with warmer waters
the first penguins must have arrived by
sea from the frozen waters of Argentina
and Chile the Galapagos penguins
descended from those penguins of
Humboldt and Magellan this is the only
one of the 18 species of penguins that
appears north of the Equator and nests
only in the tropics
[Music]
the wealth of the cold waters of
Galapagos was the key to the origin and
survival of this penguin the icy waters
from the South provided the microscopic
nutrients and the rest of the trophic
chain came after them
a chain of life that ends up outside the
water
sea lions are the most common mammals in
the Galapagos Islands the floating
islands that brought the reptiles oddly
transported any mammals there was no
water available so the two weeks that it
would take for a raft to drift from the
continent to these islands was too long
for most mammals to survive but the sea
lions did not come in rafts they swam
[Music]
more than 50,000 sea lions live in the
archipelago area and live mainly on fish
and almost insignificant effort for the
rich waters that prosper from the coming
together of different currents
[Music]
there are two species in the Galapagos
one the first seal came with the cold
waters of the South the same waters that
brought the penguin it is the smaller of
the two and is related to the first
seals that still inhabit the waters and
coasts of Argentina and Chile but it's
closed relatively Galapagos Island is
more numerous the first members of this
species must have come from the northern
hemisphere from the coastal waters of
California and in keeping with their
origins it is not uncommon to find them
enjoying a day surfing
[Music]
see iguanas depend on the seed for
survival just like the sea lions first
thing in the morning they gather in
large groups near the water
letting the Sun warm their bodies and
activate their economic metabolism
when their temperature has risen
sufficiently the cygwin has go to the
breaker areas or the intertidal area in
search of the algae on which they feed
[Music]
these are the only iguanas in the world
that go into the scene their life
depends entirely on the supply of algae
that the ocean offers them so they have
become excellent swimmers
the cig one has feed on the algae on the
shores while they can but if he start to
run out they enter the water and dive
down to the bottom of the scene
propelled by the powerful muscles in
their flat tails but this is only the
beginning of their amazing adaptive
achievements a metabolism that is
capable of working without renewing the
oxygen supply and the ability to reduce
their heart rate at will allow these sea
iguanas to immerse themselves at depths
of up to 12 meters for at least an hour
[Music]
on many occasions the most succulent
leafy algea tree found in the breaker
area this is a considerable obstacle for
young iguanas but adult iguanas in the
prime of life have no great trouble in
reaching them
sharp claws capable of withstanding the
beating of the waves managed to keep
them between the breakers and let them
reach the algae successfully from time
to time in cycles that are becoming even
shorter and more unpredictable the trade
winds from the southeast stopped blowing
without the break of the Peru current
pushed by the trade winds hot water
advances towards the archipelago and
causes a tragedy with effects that go
beyond the ocean limits
[Music]
the rise in the water temperature causes
an impoverishment of the marine
ecosystem because the nutrients that
arrived with the cold waters from the
South disappear the fish leave and as a
result of all this death and starvation
reign over all the Galapagos El Ninos
this phenomenon is known damages the
coasts of the archipelago to such an
extent that it would seem impossible for
them to recover but if the galapagos
have shown us something it is that their
power to shelter life has no bounds
with the return of the cold waters which
in nutrients the zoological communities
are reborn and their previous population
levels gradually return it is if the
islands wanted to resume and remember
their biological capacity the same
capacity that transformed these barren
islets into the epitome of biological
evolution that they have become but in a
timescale that is five million times
faster the El Nino phenomenon is not as
damaging for all species if truth be
told once it has passed it leaves some
positive results behind that should be
set against the negative effects in an
overall balance after all we are talking
about a phenomenon which is as old as
the islands themselves while an in your
son's death along the coasts it causes
torrential downpours inland fresh water
is a necessity in very short supply in
the islands so the rains have a positive
effect in the long term the vegetation
grows spectacularly the number of
insects increases and birds reproduce in
an exceptional way
just as the years of drought created
terrible pressure on the natural
selection of living creatures inland the
Amenia years do so on the coastal
species
in this way the Galapagos have set the
patterns for the evolutionary formation
of species for the 5 million years that
they have existed and they are still
doing it
the islands are isolated from each other
and from the continent and this has turn
galapogos
into a natural laboratory that is unique
in the world the species that flew here
were transported by animals or floated
on the sea became isolated by the
stretches of water that separate the
islands and thousands of years of
evolution adapting to different
environments transformed them so they
diversified and created different
adaptive models and no other place in
the world can this be seen with such
clarity and it only needed the arrival
of a man of open mind like Darwin for
the theory of evolution to arise here a
theory which would transform the very
pillars on which science was built and
the process is still going on a strange
paradox if we bear in mind that Darwin
originally intended to confirm with his
voyage the fixed truth of the book of
Genesis from the Bible
in the different islands of the
archipelago it is not uncommon to find
new experiments in this monumental
laboratory this is a hybrid iguana
it's father is a see wanna and it's
mother is a land iguana there are only
two in the whole world
perhaps the prototype may work because
its range of foodstuffs is wider than
that of each of its parents and it's
hybrid physiology means it can operate
both on land and in the scene but as
with so many other hybrids this
experiment is sterile to reach new
species a gradual evolution over
thousands of years is necessary in which
the environment shapes the physiological
changes out of pure natural pressure the
Galapagos cormorant is a good example
of the 29 species of cormorant that
exist in the world this is the only one
that has lost its ability to fly here in
the Isola - dove the archipelago where
there are no predators to escape from
and the water offers a plentiful supply
of food on the shore flight is
unnecessary for these commands or at
least not as necessary as the ability to
swim to catch fish
so the comments that could swim the best
ate more
and raised more chicks the result was
the flightless Galapagos cormorant a
cormorant whose wings slowly withered in
order to acquire a more hydrodynamic
body to the extent that they also lost
the keel of the sternum the place worthy
powerful muscles necessary for flight
come together
[Music]
in exchange for its loss of flight this
cormorant became an excellent diver
while hunting it rarely strays more than
a hundred meters from the coast and has
no enemies on land so it does not miss
flying
[Music]
during the breeding season the
cormorants are suspicious and aggressive
to those they see as enemies for their
chicks or possible competitors for food
in their territorial waters in spite of
their difference in size
the birds bad humour seems to persuade
this sea lion that it would better to
prowl on any other species of coast
while the sea lions are their main
competitors for fish the greatest risk
for the cormorants chicks comes from
frigate birds the frigates can catch
newborn chicks from the air or steal the
food from the hungry impulsive infants
that are too big to be preyed upon
life in the sea or on islands where
fresh water is short make salt
accumulation and problem most land-based
vertebrates eliminated through their
kidneys but two liters of urine would be
necessary to excrete the salt content of
just one liter of seawater so those that
ingest food and drink under the ocean
waters have had to resort to more
sophisticated systems
these flightless cormorants are getting
rid of excess salt
they have special glands above their
eyes that secrete a saline solution with
a concentration of 5% to prevent this
secretion from falling into their eyes
they have a special duct which takes the
drops to the tip of their beak from
which they fall in the constant drip
the sea iguanas have the same problem
but do not have a beak along which they
can channel the salt excretion so they
have adopted a more efficient method
they're disseminating glands are the
most effective of all reptiles like the
cormorants they are located above their
eyes but instead of reduct connecting
with the beach in iguanas it connects
with the nasal orifices through which it
ejects the salt by sneezing from time to
time this is why lease iguanas head
always appears with an uneven white
helmet the sahaba crabs also suffer from
a diet with excess salt which they have
to eliminate to do this they have
followed the iguanas method and have
added an important improvement namely
jet propulsion
SWAT is a double problem for the frigate
birds not only must they excrete it like
other sea birds they must also get it
out of their feathers the frigate birds
do not plunge themselves into the sea
water only their beaks touch the water
when they are fishing or when they steal
what other birds have caught the reason
lies in the feathers themselves the
gland with which birds grease their
feathers is very small in the frigate
birds so if they landed on the sea they
would be soaked quickly and they would
drown but as they are constantly
splashed with sea water the frigate
birds end up having to eliminate the
salt deposited on their feathers they do
this by having a bath in fresh water
on the island of san cristobol the
crater of an extinct volcano has
provided a place for a lake the frigate
birds come here to desalinate but they
try not to immerse themselves completely
in the water and if they do they have
only a few seconds before they're badly
greased feathers are soaked and become
too heavy for them to fly a dispute
between two females in reproductive
phase ends up with one of them in the
water its opponent knows that if it
floats for too long on the water it will
drown and so tries to prevent it from
taking off one last effort frees the
female from the water for frigate birds
desalination can be a risky business
the isolation of the islands cause the
species to diversify but it also creates
very high risks for them the arrival of
new settlers adapted to the brutal
natural competition on the continent may
bring about dramatic changes within the
fragile ecology of the Galapagos these
new introductions occurred on such a
sporadic basis that they were absorbed
over thousands of years
but the arrival of man and changed the
most important factor in this complex
equation time
although it is likely that the Galapagos
were visited by pre-columbian sailors it
was officially discovered in 1535 by
Franco monthly Berlanga from then on man
started to interfere with the natural
balance of the archipelago new species
arrived on his boats deliberately or
otherwise and they arrived in numbers
and varieties that could not be absorbed
within the balance of nature of the
islands the new species were more
aggressive and gradually started taking
control of the niche dug out by the
species native to the island and they
are still doing it today the BlackBerry
an aggressive Bush that spreads very
quickly advances inexorably across the
landscape in the islands where it has
appeared it is one of more than 300
species of exotic plants that have been
introduced in the last decade a speed of
invasion which the rhythm of
evolutionary adaptions has found
impossible to assimilate the competition
for the native plants ecological niche
is growing although some of them have
natural allies that enable them to
spread widely far beyond the individual
capacity of their fruit and scenes this
is the month aniyo the sap from this
tree is so poisonous that contact with
it can produce a very painful ulceration
on the skin its fruits are also very
poisonous for most animals although not
all
the so-called Galapagos the giant
turtles of the archipelago eat these
small fruits of the month a neo without
any trouble
later on their long pilgrimages through
the island forests they leave their
compact deposits here and there these
Turtles digestive system is extremely
rudimentary so that after one two or
even three weeks inside the animal the
month the new seeds reach the outside
and colonized new lands which may be a
long way from their original territory
the giant turtles of the Galapagos are
very resistant to drought their
metabolism allows them to obtain water
from stores of fat and from the plants
they eat on their slow journeys but when
there is water available the big
Colonials gather on these shores every
day and protect themselves from the Sun
and get rid of any parasites by taking
birds and taking themselves in mud this
male weighing over 200 kilos cools off
by staying still in the pond
it seems prepared to stay there until
the Sun and the heat go down but things
are going to take an unexpected turn
from the inside of the forest a female
on heat responds to the call of the
fresh smell of the pond the turtle has
not spotted nor smelt the motionless
male but when she starts to drink her
stimulating smell reaches him and
produces an immediate reaction in the
enormous suitor
the turtles mate in a very impolite way
when the female discovers that a male is
approaching she does not waste a second
and takes off as quickly as possible the
male is bigger and faster and generally
catches up with a female later he will
block her path with his 230 kilos in
weight and will carry out the copulation
in an act which more resembles rape than
mating
in spite of its perfect adaptation to
the environment and it's great longevity
some turtles are said to be 200 years
old the giant Galapagos turtles have
suffered an alarming decline in
population levels and their amazing
capacity to withstand a lack of water
and food is partly to blame when ships
started to arrive on the coasts of the
Galapagos Islands the sailors Sully
giant turtles as a source of food on
land and as a living food store for long
voyages one of his Giants could go on
for a year without eating or drinking so
there were perfect provisions for the
sailors in addition these same ships
whose crew members killed or made off
with the Turtles also brought invading
animals with them that voluntarily or
otherwise remained on the islands some
of these such as rats or pigs since then
eaten the eggs are these giant Colonials
[Music]
the result was that of the 14 races or
subspecies which had been noted in the
islands only ten have survived until
today well if you can't lonely Jorge
inside the Charles Darwin Biological
Station on the island of Santa Cruz the
last member of the subspecies from Binta
the most northerly island of the
archipelago awaits his sad fate with
patience
despite attempts to cross him with other
similar subspecies Jorge has rejected
all the females a reward of $10,000 has
been offered for a Pinta female but no
Zoo has been able to find one among its
animals in 1981 turtle excrete mint were
found on Pinter offering a ray of hope
to this last example of a biological
prototype that took millions of years to
finish
maybe Jorge I still got a chance to find
a mate before he dies
the animals which were brought by a
sailors reproduced at ease and upset the
ecological balance of the islands one of
the most widespread and most damaging
was the goat abandoned on the island to
reproduce and serve as future meat
supplies the goats prospered quickly and
have become a playing today the same
species that brought them in is trying
to correct this mistake
and although the goat culling campaign
is difficult it is beginning to produce
results
the controlled hunting of goats is
permitted by the Galapagos National Park
Services Department who enlist the
services of hunters the hunters use
firearms or as in this case surround the
goats near the coast and once they are
tired catch them and slaughter them
the youngest animals are soldiers meat
for human consumption and provide a
source of income for the hunters and a
source of protein for the Islanders but
many old males are killed and abandoned
so that the local buzzards may feed on
their meat so that in the end the goats
do offer some benefits to the local
fauna
[Music]
the Galapagos Islands are a living
ever-changing system which is
historically and geographically isolated
and has only been joined to the rest of
the world by man the most aggressive
species on the planet from a strictly
ecological point of view we are just
another species and our appearance in
Galapagos and the avalanche of immediate
consequences would therefore not be more
important than other episodes in the
long process of adaptations to new
events that the islands have experienced
since their origins but our species is
not just another of those that arrived
and will continue to arrive at the
Galapagos in a natural way we are the
most aggressive but we also have the
knowledge and the sensitivity that
enables us to conserve this strange
paradise where we can study the
mechanisms of the origins of life and
the development brought on by the
struggle for survival a complex and
intricate game in which our species is
also immersed
[Music]
now all efforts are centered on a common
aim to conserve the isolation of the
islands and their biological communities
as far as is possible
only in this way can the intricate
mechanism of natural selection be
studied and only in this way will the
prototypes be preserved those endemic
species that arose after thousands of
years of adaptive pressure only
different habitats of the Galapagos
Islands it makes no difference if they
are iguanas land-based Turtles finches
or these lava girls of which only 400
pairs are left all of them are fragile
gears in the Hermetic mechanism of the
Galapagos all of them are equally
important equally necessary
Darwin came here in search of a literal
confirmation of the words of the book of
Genesis
but Galapagos gave him the aanenson a
view of life that would change our
conception of the Origin of Species
forever and which would make him right
here both in space and in time we feel
that we are closer to that great event
that mystery among mistress which is the
appearance of new creatures on the earth
[Music]