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Here you can find the latest news about the daily work of our institution, scientific advances, adventures of field trips and others. You can also access the "Letters from the Library" section, where you will find articles written by the coordinator of our library.

Isabel Grijalva
We hope this note finds you, your loved ones and community well. Since the streets of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island went silent two weeks ago and our staff moved offices to the safety of their homes, the authorities have been working tirelessly to implement necessary precautions ...

Isabel Grijalva
On March 5 2020, we welcomed the latest giant Galapagos tortoise newborns. There were 9 born in total in that nest, and to celebrate we would like to invite you to help us in naming one of them.  Newborn tortoise. Photo by: Ainoa Nieto, CDF As is common with tortoises, we won't know the s...

Edgardo Civallero
 Libraries are one of the pillars of education and professional development. They are essential for creating literate, well-informed, and empowered communities by providing relevant, updated knowledge, while at the same time keeping the social memory and cultural knowledge safe. In the Galapa...

As President of the Board of Directors of the Charles Darwin Foundation, I write to share our concern and gratitude for you during this unprecedented and rapidly changing global crisis. We hope you are taking good care to protect yourself, your loved ones and your community. Our supporters and partn...

Isabella Morgante
In August of 2019, the first technical dive expedition for scientific research was carried out in the Galapagos. We were accompanied by Monty Halls and a film crew who wanted to capture this unique expedition, which you can see featured in the documentary “My Family and the Galapagos”. T...

Isabel Grijalva
The Charles Darwin Foundation would like to announce that Dr. Arturo Izurieta will no longer continue as Executive Director at the end of his contract period on March 31, 2020. Since 2015, Dr. Izurieta has guided the Charles Darwin Foundation through a crucial period of its 60-year history. Under h...

Pelayo Salinas de León
Scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation, working with the sharks ecology project, in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), the University of the Azores (Portugal) and the Nova Southeastern University (USA), have recently deployed, for the first time, towed satellit...

Denisse Fierro
-- Press Release -- The Charles Darwin Foundation (FCD) and the Ecuadorian Society for Statistics (ESS), with the support from the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) and the Agency for the Regulation and Control of Telecommunications (Arcotel), organised the first training course coveri...

Isabel Grijalva
Today we celebrate the birthday and history of the ‘Father of Evolution’.  Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who changed the way humans viewed themselves and the world around them through his amazing ideas on evolution and natural selection. When he visited the Galapagos ...

Isabel Grijalva
--Press Release-- The age of the oldest penguin in the Galapagos Island has been recently discovered by scientists at the Charles Darwin Foundation, who were working with the Galapagos National Park Directorate on Isabella Island. The penguins age is 17.7 years old. This female penguin was firs...

Isabel Grijalva
--Press Release-- On the 12th of December, during an event at the Capitol Theatre in Quito, the premier for the documentary Galapagos, hope for the Future was screened. Over 250 guests were attended the event. Representatives of the Chancellery of Ecuador, embassies and diplomatic bodies, as well as...

Isabel Grijalva
--Press Release-- On the 6th of December, the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) for the Galapagos Islands received the Gran Collar San Francisco Award, due to its hard work of 60 years in the construction of knowledge and preservation of the Columbus Archipelago, also known as the Galapagos Islands. ...

Nicolas Moity
We joined the guests of the M/V Galapagos Sky to share the marine research we do at the CDF and our deep involvement with the conservation of the marine reserve of this World Heritage Site. Approximately two years ago, ‘The Galapagos Biodiversity and the Education for Sustainability Fund&rsqu...

Isabel Grijalva
Every year in November, the Charles Drawin Foundation hold a meeting for the General Assembly, which is the governeing body of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). This year the meetings were held in Galapagos, lasting from the 9th of November to the 11th , at the Research Station located in Puerto ...

Isabel Grijalva
For the fourth consecutive year the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Directorate are seeking the involvement of the community of Galapagos in the “Christmas Bird Count”, which aims to monitor the population status of the most emblematic landbirds of the islands. ...

Shannon Nagy
Beautiful images of rarely seen sea-floor creatures are surfacing from the mesophotic or the “twilight” zone of Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR). To explore this low-light zone between 40m to 150m, we at the Seamount Research Project from the Charles Darwin Foundation are now utilizing a n...

Isabel Grijalva
-- Press release -- Green turtles and sea lions are the main prey for large tiger sharks in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR), shows a new study by a group of scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos Science Center of the University San Francisco de Quito, along with ...

Isabel Grijalva
--Press Release-- This is the first documentary about the Charles Darwin Foundations and the work of the Galapagos National Park. As part of its 60th anniversary of scientific research within the Galapagos Archipelago, the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) attended the premiere of the documentary, Ga...

Andrea Acurio
The Charles Darwin foundation has just released a new way for people to quickly identify introduced and invasive terrestrial invertebrates. This blog explains in detail how the idea was realized and what it can be used for. Final draft of the poster presented by: Andrea Acurio (left), FCD Terrestri...

Isabel Grijalva
At the Charles Darwin Foundation, we firmly believe that education is the key to environmental conservation and sustainability. We know that education and outreach are essential to the success of Galapagos conservation. We are aware that educating and providing new experiences, standards and resourc...

Salomé Buglass
At the end of last year, during a pilot study using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to explore seamounts in in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, we discovered a kelp forest! In this article, we share more details about the day of discovery and about kelp in the Galapagos. What was meant to be our fin...

Irene Peña
It has been ten years since the Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme (GTMEP) started to research the migration of giant tortoises, how migration affects tortoise health and reproduction, and the effects of anthropogenic environmental change on migration. At the end of July, a group of scien...

Juan Manuel García
As part of the 60th anniversary of the Charles Darwin Research Station, on Friday August 2nd, we were invited to present a selection of photographs about the biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands at the exhibit “Galapagos: Laboratory of Biodiversity” organized by the Socio-Environmental ...

Paola Díaz Freire
A team of staff members lead by our Executive Director, Arturo Izurieta, traveled to San Francisco, in California, from 23rd to 26th of July, to work with the Science and communications teams of the California Academy of Sciences, and to actively participate in the Nightlife at the Academy event. Th...

Isabel Grijalva
Galapagos Report is a compilation of articles covering topics in human systems, tourism, biodiversity and ecosystem restoration, and marine management of Galapagos and its Marine Reserve. This document provides information on biophysical and socioeconomic aspects in Galapagos for decision-makers, t...

Isabel Grijalva
Months ago we received the visit of Alison Teal at our Research Station in Puerto Ayora. Alison is known as the female Indiana Jones of Time magazine. She travels the world in search of the myths, mysteries and legends of the land. Her special feature is the hat she wears and the pink color that is ...

Shannon Nagy
Typically, marine reserves are strictly “no-take areas”, but anyone who has visited the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) will know, it’s not a typical area. Unique challenges call for unique solutions, and the fisheries project at the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) has employ...

Isabel Grijalva
Today is our 60th Birthday and we want to say thank you! For six decades hundreds of scientists, researchers, and volunteers from across the world have participated in helping protect, manage and maintain the unique ecosystems and conservation of the Galapagos and the World. Without support from a...

María Guerrero
The ecological gardens established Galápagos Verde 2050 (GV2050) of the Charles Darwin Foundation at various points in the islands populated in the archipelago, are not just another green space. Working as a team allows us to create beautiful and well-tendered gardens with local students. The...

Liza Nagode
After three years of incredibly successful fundraising efforts to contribute to the scientific research and conservation of the blue-footed boobies in the Galapagos, Will Gladstone was finally able to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station and learn about research and conservation work first-hand...

Paola Díaz Freire
Thanks to an initiative led by the British Embassy in Quito and Atlantic Productions, virtual glasses with the short "Galapagos Adventure" will be available for the month of July and August in Galapagos in our Research Station. Galapagos Adventure is a new virtual reality experience that will arriv...

Francesca Cunninghame
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) team are back from two months of fieldwork in a remote part of Isabela Island, a small patch of mangrove forest nestled between harsh lava fields reached by a six hour boat ride from Santa Cruz Island. This is the onl...

Paola Díaz Freire
In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands, we invite the community to the INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM - 60 YEARS OF CONSERVATION AND SCIENCE IN GALAPAGOS, which will take place on Tuesday 2nd and Wedn...

Written by: Paulina Cepa. Translated by: Salome Buglass
The deep-sea is the largest biome on Earth, made up of marine habitats that exist below 200 m. This unexplored space is a heterogeneous landscape with underwater mountains, oceanic pits, marine caves as well as hypersaline and anoxic (low oxygen) environments (Duarte, 2006). Deep-sea habitats sustai...

Isabel Grijalva
"I want to keep flying" (Quiero seguir volando in Spanish) is the campaign being carried out in the Galapagos Islands to reduce the number of birds that die on the road due to vehicle impacts. The campaign was launched in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, in April 2019 by the Charles Darwin Research Station...

Camila Arnés Urgellés
At the beginning of 2019 I received some great news for my birthday; I was awarded a small grant from The Rufford Foundation to conduct an exciting hammerhead shark research project in the Galapagos Islands! The objective of this project was to determine the feeding ecology of the endangered scallop...

Esme Plunkett
Historical photographic records show a clear deterioration of the Opuntia echios forests on South Plaza island. The breakdown of ecological integrity on South Plaza is why the Galapagos Verde 2050 project (GV2050) works to restore this cactus population, using water-saving technology to accelerate t...

Paola Díaz Freire
Sophie is a 9-year-old girl from Switzerland that was inspired by the story of Lonesome George in her first trip to the Galapagos Islands two years ago and wanted to make a difference so that the planet does not lose any more species.  Sophie at the Charles Darwin Research Station in Galapagos...

Isabel Grijalva
The Charles Darwin Foundation presented the document “Alert on the state of conservation of the natural capital of Galapagos Islands” to his board members. This technical report expresses the institutional position of the Darwin Foundation in relation to the current situation of the most...

Inti Keith
On the 5th of March of 2019, a team made up of members of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), Conservation International (CI), and the Galapagos National Park Directorate(DPNG, for its Spanish acronym) embarked upon an expedition on the scientific vessel, Queen Mabel, for the Subtidal Marine Ecolog...

Gavin Bandy and Alex Lovell
For children all over the world, their first exposure to Sharks is seeing bloodthirsty monsters ripping into carcasses and seeing scuba divers narrowly avoiding their snapping jaws on programs like Shark Week. Yet every year, hundreds of thousands of people travel to the Galapagos, a World Heri...

Isabel Grijalva
On February 7th and 8th, the Charles Darwin Research Station held the international Workshop on Advances in the Search for Solutions for the Control of the Avian Parasite Philornis downsi and for the conservation of Galapagos landbirds. The event was attended by national and international experts w...

Isabel Grijalva and Paola Díaz
The California Academy of Sciences (CAS) has a deep-rooted research history in the Galapagos. For decades, these islands have been visited by scientists and visitors as a living laboratory of evolution. The first expedition of scientists from the California Academy of Sciences was in 1905, the Acade...

Isabel Grijalva
In 2019, the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) celebrates its Diamond Anniversary. Since its creation on the 23rd of July 1959, it has produced thousands of scientific research results for the conservation of the archipelago and has provided advise to the Galapagos National Park Directorate among othe...

Daniela Vilema
Between October and December 2018, more than 1000 students from Santa Cruz, Isabela and San Cristobal Islands have participated in the "Marine Mornings" initiative of the Charles Darwin Research Station, one of the components of our Marine Education Project that takes place in Galapagos with the par...

Patricia Jaramillo and Frank Bungartz
Scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Arizona State University and the Geneva Botanical Gardens recently discovered a great diversity of "beard lichen" species belonging to Usnea genus in the Galapagos Islands. Until before the publicatio...

Luis Eduardo Cevallos Chonillo
Growing up in the center of Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador, I spent my days surrounded by colorful buses, honking cars and taxis screeching to a hault at the line. I remember how much I wanted the weekend to start, and convince my parents to go to the beach. Just drink coconut water on a war...

Ernesto Bustamante
On Isabela Island in the Galapagos, the need to implement environmental education initiatives was identified as a high priority due to the lack of these types of initiatives in the curriculums of the educational centers. This article describes the story and results of the first environmental educati...

Isabel Grijalva
Our 2017-2018 Annual Report has been released. It features work we do to provide knowledge and assistance through scientific research to ensure the conservation in Galapagos. This document provides an overview of all projects implemented by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) in Galapagos during 201...

Joshua Vela Fonseca
Giant tortoises have disappeared from almost every corner of the world, and currently, they are the most threatened group of vertebrates according to El Comercio. Although it might sound bizarre, this kind of reptile once inhabited several continents. However, an IBS special issue corroborates the r...

Salomé Buglass
November 2018 has been one of the most exciting and challenging months I have experienced working as a marine scientist at the Charles Darwin Foundation. The month was filled with a lot of firsts, for me – I lead ocean-going research expeditions in the Galapagos, piloted remotely operated vehi...

Isabel Grijalva
For the third consecutive year, the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Directorate, are organizing an annual Christmas Bird Count in Galapagos. The goal of this campaign is to involve the community in the scientific research and monitoring that is being carried out to evaluate...

Daniela Vilema
This year, thanks to the support of the Lindblad Expeditions - National Geographic Fund, we are carrying out a project to change attitudes towards marine pollution through the construction of a sculpture which will be created with plastics collected from beach clean-ups.  The concept of the ins...

Yasmin Redolosis
My story began as a volunteer with the Galapagos Verde 2050 project, from the Charles Darwin Foundation, which has now entered its second phase and has as a new aim towards rural ecological restoration. The goal that has been proposed with the leadership of Dr. Patricia Jaramillo, leader of the Gala...

Isabel Grijalva
Hans van Poelvoorde MSc, has been elected President of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) following the retirement of Dennis Geist after seven years as President and ten years on the Board of Directors. The XLVII General Assembly meeting of CDF took place at the Charles Darwin Research Statio...

Daniela Vilema
When living in an archipelago, it is common to think that all people visit the beach frequently, that they swim or that they snorkel as many of the people who visit the islands to get to know one of the most pristine places in the world. However, the reality in the Galapagos Islands is different. Th...

Inti Keith
The Ecological Monitoring Program was developed to provide the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) with a complete description of this community and to provide information on the dynamics and magnitude of the fluctuations of this biota through space and time and incorporate natural and anthro...

Esme Plunkett
On 12th September 2018, a team from Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) project, Galapagos Verde 2050 (GV2050) with the collaboration of the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative (GTRI), implemented by Galapagos Conservancy and the Galapagos National Park Directorate, travelled on an expedition to Espa&...

Inti Keith & Jacqueline Rodríguez
The Galapagos Biodiversity and Education for Sustainability Fund (GBESF) was created in 2017 by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and Ecoventura. CDF is a non-profit organization that provides knowledge and technical assistance through scientific research to the Galapagos National Park Directorate...

Daniela Vilema
A new exhibit at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Van Straelen Interpretation Center has been re-opened with the “Marine World” themed display after 18 years. Thanks to the support of Save Our Seas Foundation, we painted the walls, designed new information panels, made artifact...

Paola Díaz Freire
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and World Wildlife Fund Inc. (WWF) wish to recognize the extraordinary support received from people and institutions, who have contributed in a significant way to both the execution of our programs and projects, and our organizational development. In addition, man...

Ainoa Nieto
Last July, members of the Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme (GTMEP) spent a week in Alcedo Volcano, one of the biggest volcanoes of the Galapagos Islands and home of the largest population of giant tortoises. Our main goals were to collect the telemetry data from the 11 tortoises with ou...

Daniela Vilema
Puerto Santa Ana in Guayaquil was the venue for the fifth edition of the event that every each year strives to connect, exhibit and reward the best social-environmental projects of this region: Latinoamerica Verde Awards (Green Latin America Awards). This year, the event included 2,7...

Paola Díaz Freire
Today we had the honor of celebrating the life of our friend and partner of so many years, Felipe Cruz Bedón, who died in Chile on August 9, 2018.    In a ceremony that took place at the Charles Darwin Research Station during this afternoon, his son Rashid Cruz Chesney, his mother ...

Paola Díaz Freire
Is with deep regret The Charles Darwin Foundation, its Board of Directors, Members of its General Assembly, staff members and volunteers send this note about the death of our friend and colleague, and ex Vice Director, Mr. Felipe Hernán Cruz Bedon which took place in Chile on the 9th of Augus...

Micaela Solís
When people ask me, why do you love plants? The answer is easy: “plants are at the base of the trophic chain, meaning they are crucial for the ecosystems”, and having so many endangered species around the world for different causes is highly concerning. Therefore, I am trying to contribu...

Byron Delgado
The community in the Galapagos Islands is of great relevance in the research programs of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). It is also of relevance for the natural conservation of the archipelago. Humans extract, take, protect and manage the natural resources that offer this paradise.Therefore, it...

Ernesto Bustamante
The Executive Directorate of the Charles Darwin Foundation identified in 2016 that it was a necessity to spread the mission of the Foundation on the different populated areas of the archipelago. For this reason, since January 2017, there is Liaison Coordinator on Isabela who has served as a primary ...

Julio Rodriguez
Written with the support of Francesca Cunninghame. The Mangrove Finch is a Critically Endangered species that is found only in a small mangrove forest on Isabela Island and it is currently highly threatened by an invasive parasitic fly called Philornis downsi. The larvae of this fly can often lead ...

Michael Tanner
I remember my first exposure to local conservation efforts in Ecuador; I must have been 9 years old, and passing by the mangrove trees still standing on the outskirts of Guayaquil, where a big sign read “Manglar es vida” Spanish for “Mangroves are life”. At this time, the shr...

Nicolas Moity
This article was co-written by Salomé Buglass. Approximately a year ago, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Ecuadorian tour-company, Ecoventura, and the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and which produced ‘The Galapagos Biodiversity and Education for Sustain...

Julio Rodriguez
We regret to inform that on Saturday June 2nd, 2018 one of our founding members Dr. Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt passed away at the age of 89 in Starnberg, Germany. He was an honorary member of our General Assembly and a very active supporter of conservation efforts in Galapagos. In fact, it was due...

Florencia Cerutti
A long-dreamed opportunity for any biologist, I finally found my way to the Galápagos Islands last March. On the second week of my new position at the research station of the Charles Darwin Foundation, we embarked on a week-long field trip to the north of the archipelago: the islands of Darwi...

Johanna Carrión
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), with the support of the Boninology Institute, the Japanese Association for Galápagos (JAGA) and several collaborators and authorities from Japan, carried out a student exchange program between the Galápagos and the Ogasawara Islands in Japan. The Og...

Ma. Lorena Romero Martínez
Historic records from the 1970s and 80s showed that the population number of Galvezia leucantha var. leucantha (an endemic subspecies of snapdragon) drastically declined on Isabela Island because of herbivory by introduced animals such as goats and rats (Wiggins & Porter, 1971; Ty...

Julio Rodriguez
The Galapagos martin (Progne modesta) is an endemic species, which means it is only found on the archipelago. Due to its low numbers, it is categorized as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). However, very little is known about its biology and natur...

Julio Rodriguez
We are very pleased to announce a new partnership between The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed on January 9th, 2018, which has the goal of conducting collaborative research to underst...

Inti Keith
A team of expert scientists embarked on the M/V Queen Mabel this April to Darwin and Wolf to conduct surveys and asses the current state of the coral reefs of the northern part of the archipelago and continue the research on marine invasive species in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR). The Marine ...

Daniela Vilema
Written in collaboration with: Pelayo Salinas de León. Since 2013, the Charles Darwin Research Station’s shark team, in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park Directorate, have conducted three annual trips to Darwin and Wolf to study sharks: one during the warm season, another d...

Julio Rodriguez
Do you want to visit Galapagos and help conserve the archipelago? The Ecuadorian tour-company, Ecoventura, joined forces with the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) in 2017 to help preserve the Enchanted Islands. Every year, Ecoventura tries to raise at least $150,000 for ‘The Galapagos Biodiver...

Paola Lahuatte
When I first arrived in the Galapagos Islands in mid-2013, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to do an internship with the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). As odd as it sounds, I was involved in reproducing and raising an invasive fly in captivity. The particular fly we were working with, Philor...

Pamela Kaval-Wilding
The Mangrove Finch (Camarhynchus heliobates), one of Darwin’s iconic finches, is a bird species found only in the dense mangrove forests of the western Galapagos Islands. At one time, these birds were found on two Galapagos Islands, Fernandina and Isabela. Today, primarily due to threats from ...

Daniela Vilema
With more than 80,000 visitors annually, the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) is one of the most visited places by tourists in the Galapagos Islands. The Van Straelen Interpretation Center, part of the visit to our Research Station, is a space where different exhibits about Galapagos have been...

Diana Flores
Between July and September 2017, the Galapagos Verde 2050 (#GV 2050) team, together with the entomology team of the Charles Darwin Foundation and park guards from the Galapagos National Park Directorate carried out ecological monitoring of the Opuntia echios var. echios seedlings present on the isla...

Julio Rodriguez
On February 15, members of two multi-country working groups attended a workshop hosted by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) to share updates on research to conserve Darwin’s finches and other Galapagos landbirds and protect them from their number ...

Julio Rodriguez
Today we pay homage to all the women who work for science and conservation in Galapagos. All departments, including Science, Administration and Executive Management, depend on an incredible team of women who work for the conservation of these fragile islands. They are a clear example of women who ha...

Birgit Fessl
Scientific knowledge about Galapagos land birds is imperative for their survival. How many land birds are there in Galapagos and where are they found? In which ways does the parasitic Philornis downsi fly affect the archipelago’s bird populations and what can we do to save them? Twenty years ...

Julio Rodriguez
The scholarships at the Charles Darwin Foundation help train talented students from Galapagos. Patricia Isabela Tapia, a 20-year-old Galapagos youth, is currently following her passion and studying abroad. After participating in a challenging selection process that gives scholarships to two student...

Paola Díaz Freire
The Santa Cruz Municipality in the Galapagos Islands, in the Session of the 9th of February 2018, unanimously resolved to award Dr. Heinke Jäger the SCIENTIFIC MERIT RECOGNITION for her work in the Biodiversity of Galápagos, and her recommendations for the sustainable management of resou...

Julio Rodriguez
Today, February 12th, is a very special day for the Galapagos islands, and the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). Not only was it Charles Darwin’s birthday in 1809, but it was also the day in which the archipelago was officially incorporated into Ecuador’s national territory in 1832. There...

Michelle Schuiteman
Fisheries technician Solange Andrade-Vera sits in the lab of the marine sciences building at the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), intent on her work.  In one hand, she holds a small white object glued to a glass slide.  With the other, she presses a small piece of special sandpaper, known ...

Daniela Vilema
The first time we met with our Shark Ambassadors group in 2017 at the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS), they looked curious about the activities we were about to develop. I remember asking all of them why they chose this program instead of the other options they had and some of them told me th...

Gustavo Morejón
Many programs have been started with a goal to provide the best access to existing taxonomic information, but arguably the most important began in 1994 under the auspices of the United Nations with the creation of the BIN 21 network, now known as the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Network).&n...

Salomé Buglass
When I first moved to the Galapagos to begin my position as marine ecologist at the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) a year ago, I was in disbelief each time I went snorkelling. Seeing tropical corals and parrot fish, sea lions and sub-Antarctic penguins all sharing the same coastal habitat was mind-...

Daniela Vilema
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), a non-for-profit research institution that for almost 60 years has been the official scientific advisor to the Ecuadorian government, will be hosting a world-class International Climate Change Workshop at the iconic Charles Darwin Research Station. From the 25th ...

Daniela Vilema
Take motivated students, add the ocean surrounding us, and you have the perfect combination to conduct conservation work. When you are at the beach, have you ever lifted a rock to find out what is under it? Or, have you touched sand to know if there is life there? Or, have you realized that there i...

Galo Del Hierro
As part of its mission, the Charles Darwin Foundation is proud to announce the launch of two partial University scholarships for local students of Galápagos with an excellent academic background. The locals can conduct their studies in areas related to conservation of ecosystems and sustainab...

Verónica Toral-Granda
An international research team has identified the pathways that more than 1,500 alien species have taken to the Galápagos Islands, which will help to protect the UNESCO World Heritage-listed area from future threats. The study, led by Charles Darwin University PhD candidate Veronica Toral-Gr...

Dr. Dennis Geist
Fernandina Volcano began erupting on September 4 2017, at about 18:25 UTC (12:25 local time). This is not very surprising, because Fernandina erupts every few years, most recently in 2009, and before that 2005 and 1995. All of the recent eruptions have been on the southwestern flank of the volcano: ...

Julio Rodriguez
As part of a launch of the new “Galapagos Biodiversity and Education for Sustainability Fund”, a  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the Ecuadorian tour-company Ecoventura with the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and Mr. Eliecer Cruz Bedón, a prominent Galapagos ...

Arturo Izurieta Valery
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) supports the initiatives of communities in the Galapagos and mainland Ecuador to peacefully rally against illegal fisheries of endangered species. It is very alarming that these activities continue to occur in our territorial waters and in the Galapagos Marine Res...

Inti Keith
Written in collaboration with Geiner Golfin, Management of Natural Resources for Cocos Island. An investigation was recently initiated in the Cocos Island National Park with the aims of minimizing the negative impacts on marine biodiversity in the Cocos Island National Park caused by non-...

Camila Arnés Urgellés
My experience with the 2017 ecological monitoring project It was 5:30am when the motor of the Queen Mabel ship was turned off after navigating all night towards Punta Moreno, our first stop in the west of the archipelago. The sun still wasn’t out and we were getting ready for our first dive o...

Ernesto Bustamante
I have been very lucky to visit Galapagos numerous times, first as a volunteer at the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) and then at the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). At the start of 2016, I returned to support the Foundation’s work as a “Local Liaison Coordinator” on Is...

Julio Rodriguez
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), and a group of local and international scientists and authorities met at the end of July 2017 on Santa Cruz Island to discuss the impacts of climate change at a workshop called “Science and Climate Change CMAR...

Edward Williams
The G.T. Corley Smith Library, located in Puerto Ayora at our Research Station, is happy to announce the online availability of our catalog. In the past, the only way to know which titles were in our collection was to visit the library in person. Now, thanks to the support of the Galapagos Conservan...

Patricia Jaramillo Díaz
Written in collaboration with Lorena Romero. Between June 21 and 28, 2017, the Galapagos Verde 2050 (GV2050) team, with the collaboration of Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative, implemented by Galapagos Conservancy and Galapagos National Park Directorate, went on an expedition to Española ...

Andrés Cruz
The tropical heat of a sunny day in “The Enchanted Islands” fell upon the grey costume I was wearing. With blurry vision from the inside of my strange attire, I was watching how the visitors enjoyed, laughed, asked questions, and took photos of me. Children were terrified and cried as th...

Inti Keith
The Galapagos Archipelago has a new designation, a “Marine Sanctuary”, conformed by Darwin and Wolf; small islands located in the north. These islands have a lot to discover and protect. A group of experimented scientists embarked in an expedition on the boat Queen Mabel at the end of Ap...

Byron Delgado
Through the shore of the bigger islands of our archipelago we have several friends that build the beautiful landscape that we use as sustenance of our lives. In the coastal zone, and some part of the arid zones, there are these reptiles that are part of the cycle of life that here occurs. The first...

Paola Díaz Freire
The visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos is a lifetime dream for our visitors, according to Dennis Ballesteros, a Senior Guide with Metropolitan Touring, an organization that brings thousands of tourists to the islands every year. “The expec...

Daniela Vilema
The most common response when I talk to non-scientists about sharks, is that they are dangerous animals that, among other things, kill people. Actually, sharks are not killers; they are very interesting animals and science has helped us to discover some of their marvelous secrets. Besides being top ...

Pelayo Salinas de León
Elasmobranchs (sharks, rays and chimaeras) are among the most threatened group of species on the planet1. Since the end of World War II, we humans got too good at fishing and have managed to remove 9 of 10 sharks and other large predatory fishes from the global oceans2. Only few isolated and/or well...

Jose Marín
Past and Present of Fisheries in Galapagos Fisheries is one of the oldest economic activities on the Islands, which were annexed to Ecuador in 1832. One of the first attempts of colonizing the islands, which do not have ancestral cultures, was in the early 1920s by a group of Norwegians settlers th...

Daniela Vilema
Written in collaboration with Paola Diaz-Freire. A National Geographic team arrived in Galapagos for four days to run a Story Telling Bootcamp directed to our staff members and other organisations that work for conservation in the archipelago. This intensive course included, public speaking, video ...

Daniel Unda
Very docile and gentle, Galapagos penguins are unique. They are not only one of the smallest penguin species in the world, but also they are also the only penguin that lives in the equatorial line with a tropical climate. They feed near the coast and their diet is mainly composed of fish and crustac...

Birgit Fessl
Galapagos landbirds welcome seven new species! Two former sub-species of the Vermilion Flycatcher are considered proper species, the Large Cactus Finch was split into the Genovesa Cactus Finch and the Española Ground Finch, and the Sharp-beaked Ground Finch was split into three species! Howev...

Heinke Jäger
The Galapagos Islands include a large biodiversity of vertebrates including mammals, reptiles, birds and fish. However, as far as amphibians are concerned, the only one found on the islands is the Fowler’s Snouted Treefrog (Scinax quinquefasciatus), which is an introduced species. Its biology,...

Daniela Vilema
The Galapagos Marine Iguana is one of the key endemic species that is distributed throughout the archipelago. Recently, a team of European and Latin American scientists led by Dr. Sebastian Steinfartz of the Braunschweig Technical University in Germany studied the diversity of the Galapagos marine i...

Daniela Vilema
Written by: Jack Lo Lau / Mongabay LatamThis article was originally published in Mongabay Latam. How is a small fruit fly able to affect the finch population? What do the dwarf penguin, the flightless cormorant and the elegant albatross have in common? The life in Galapagos surprises you every se...

Daniela Vilema
Climbing equipment, incubators and generators with solar panels are some of the tools that are part of the materials that the mangrove finch conservation project team requires to begin the fourth season of captive rearing. This species has been severely affected by the parasitic fly Philornis downsi...

Daniela Vilema
This February 23rd, the Government of Ecuador through the Ministry of the Environment brings back from the Museum of Natural History of New York, the embalmed body of the giant tortoise native of Pinta Island, Lonesome George, who was one of the most famous reptiles in the world for having been the ...

Gustavo Jiménez-Uzcátegui
Written in collaboration with Daniela Vilema. For the first time in the islands two individuals of the species Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) were registered in the Galapagos Islands, on October 17 and 29, 2015 by Tui De Roy, and on July 14, 2016 by Luis Die Dejean. These were recorded...

Daniela Vilema
Written in collaboration with Etienne Rastoin. The coastal waters of the Galapagos archipelago have been of scientific interest for the last 30 years, however, the depths of the Marine Reserve have remained little explored and studied. That is why in 2016, the Galapagos Islands became the scene of ...

Daniela Vilema
During the last year I worked on the education component of the project "The Galapagos Marine Reserve: A Model of Sustainable Coexistence between Humans and Sharks" with the support of the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) and Lindblad-National Geographic. I mention this to tell you where this experie...

Daniela Vilema
We conclude with our campaign Protect the Fins and the Ocean Wins! Demonstrating that humans and sharks can coexist sustainably. After visiting all the schools in the archipelago and performing various activities with the local community, we have reached our goal! During July, August and September ...

Daniela Vilema
Written in collaboration with Nicolás Moity How many tourists come to Galapagos to dive? Where do these divers come from? Where are most of the sharks, mantas, turtles and other marine species of Galápagos observed by the divers? How does this information contribute to the management of the areas P...

Francesca Cunninghame
Written in collaboration with Daniela Vilema. The mangrove finch (Camarhynchus heliobates) is a critically endangered species with a population estimated at 100 individuals with fewer than 20 breeding pairs. The survival of this species in the wild is threatened due to the parasitism of nestlings b...

Daniela Vilema
Written in collaboration with Gustavo Jiménez-Uzcategui. Galapagos penguins (Spheniscus mendiculus) and non-flying cormorants (Phalacrocorax harrisi) are two endemic species of the Galapagos Islands. The penguins can be found commonly in Isabela, Fernandina, Bartolome and Floreana since they...

Paola Díaz Freire
IWC, one of our main donors supporting our conservation work in Galapagos, has launched a new watch, the Aquatimer Chronograph "Sharks". The special edition watch with production limited to 500 pieces features a unique hammerhead shark engraving on the case back. The Aquatimer Chronograph...

Paola Díaz Freire
We regret to inform that the early morning of October 25th, 2016 in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno in San Cristobal Island we lost a very dear friend and ex colleague of the Charles Darwin Foundation, Jacinto Gordillo. Everyone who had the honor to meet Don Jacinto know and feel closely the qual...

Patricia Jaramillo Díaz
Between September 27 and September 30, 2016 the Galapagos Verde 2050 project, together with the DPNG and with the support of ECOGAL and FAE, in order to continue the process of ecological restoration on Baltra, the fifth planting of native species and endemic plants of the island took place. This ti...

Paola Díaz Freire
On September 15, Catherine Rigsby, Chancellor of Yachay Tech, Paul Baker, Dean of the School of Geological Sciences and Engineering, Edwin Cadena, a teacher at the same school, and Arturo Izurieta, Executive Director of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos islands, met in the facilities o...

Paola Díaz Freire
A 25-year cooperation deal was signed in Quito on Friday, July 29, 2016 and a symbolic ceremony took place in Galapagos on the 11th of August of the same year, between the Ecuadorian Government and the Charles Darwin Foundation that will strengthen crucial scientific research and conservation effort...

Birgit Fessl
Results of a phylogenetic study that used samples of the vermillion flycatcher from the museum collection of the California Academy of Sciences were published on the 24th of May 2016 in the journal “Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution”. The study was led by investigator Ore Carmi...

Charlotte Causton
Paola Lahuatte, currently a junior researcher at the Charles Darwin Research Station, first arrived here in May 2013 as a volunteer. After a few months she was offered a scholarship to develop a method for breeding Philornis downsi under laboratory conditions for her undergraduate thesis project at ...

Michelle Schuiteman
We remember the first Director of the Charles Darwin Research Station, a Swiss ornithologist who sadly passed away last month at the age of 84. Léveque supervised and planned the initial work for the construction of the Research Station in Puerto Ayora. He started the first herbarium and he ...

Daniela Vilema
“Galapagos needs sharks, sharks need Galapagos”. This is the main focus of the environmental education workshops that have been developed for 5th, 6th and 7th graders in all the schools of Santa Cruz and that will soon be disseminated on the islands of Floreana, San Cristobal and Isabela...

Patricia Jaramillo Díaz
During May and June our team of scientists and volunteers, along with the collaboration of the Galapagos National Park Directorate, continued the initial phase in the process of ecological restoration of South Plaza through the recuperation of the cacti population (Opuntia echios var. echios). ...

Daniela Vilema
Did you know that a shark generates more than 5 million dollars in the span of its entire life in the Galapagos? Or that the Darwin and Wolf Islands host the highest shark biomass on the planet? These and many other interesting facts will be presented in the campaign titled “Protect the Fins a...

Michelle Schuiteman
A team of Charles Darwin Research Station 'Mangrove Finch Project' staff carried out the successful release of 15 mangrove finch (Camarhynchus heliobates) fledglings this May. The team spent six weeks camping in the field in order to safely release the fledglings back into their native habitat, with...

Paola Díaz Freire
Last week our Grants and Contracts Manager, Freda Chapman, retired. We wish Freda all the best in her new endeavors and want to thank her for all the years of hard work and dedication to the protection and conservation of Galapagos. Freda got involved with the Charles Darwin Research Station helpin...

Jake Vásconez Ponce
On February 28, I arrived on Baltra Island filled with expectations and (I admit it) nervousness, but I was in Galapagos and nothing could go wrong with being here. I didn’t know what to expect about the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) but I received an email from Kelsey Bradley, who would be ...

Pelayo Salinas de León
Ecuador Designated Area a Marine Sanctuary Last March: Ensures Protection of Hammerheads, Reef Sharks and Other Top Predators. In a study published today in the journal PeerJ, scientists from the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) and the National Geographic Society revealed that the northern G...

Paola Díaz Freire
A year ago the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) initiated a project to create an area within the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) with the primary objective of showing visitors and the local community about the role that the CDF has fulfilled in the Galapagos Islands for over 50 years. Dr. A...

Michelle Schuiteman
In 1986, our dear colleague Jorge Herrera became a part of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) staff. With the motivation to achieve a college scholarship that the Foundation could grant, Jorge accepted the position of Supplies Manager. He soon found himself in a very friendly atmosphere where he wo...

Francesca Cunninghame
Written in collaboration with Liza Diaz Lalova. For the third year running, the rarest of “Darwin's finches” is being captive-reared at the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS), the operating arm of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). The Mangrove Finch Project team, led by the ...

Pelayo Salinas de León
A scientific study by marine researchers from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) revealed that Wolf and Darwin Islands, located in the northwest of the Galapagos Archipelago, are considered a single ecological unit with the largest shark biomass on the planet, with an average of 17.5 tons per hecta...

Nathalia C. Mora
The Galapagos Islands are well known for their amazing biodiversity and high levels of endemism. Under the water, the Galapagos is also known for large shark populations, marine turtles and sea lions.  The Galapagos is a paradise for those who love the underwater world. My name is Nathalia. I&r...

Patricia Jaramillo Díaz
Written in collaboration with Liza Diaz Lalova and Soledad Moran. Galapagos Verde 2050 project works developing concrete actions to contribute to the process of restoring the ecological integrity and biodiversity of large areas in arid islands of Galapagos, for this purpose native and endemic ...

Peter Kramer
Roger Perry, writer, educator, passionate conservationist and Charles Darwin Research Station Director from 1964 to 1970 died in January 2016 at the age of 82. He was a Darwin Foundation Honorary Member since 2004. During his years as head of the Station he turned this small field st...

Paola Díaz Freire
This January 29, 2016 an inter-institutional Cooperation Agreement between the National Fisheries Institute (INP), represented by the General Director MSc. Edwin Moncayo, and the Charles Darwin Foundation, represented by the Executive Director, Dr. Arturo Izurieta Valery was signed. Through this fr...

Peter Kramer
Charles Darwin Research Station Director in Galapagos, wildlife conservationist and author Roger Perry has died at the age of 82. We remember Roger Perry's contribution to the conservation of the Galapagos Archipelago. He has been the longest serving Director to date. Dr. Peter Kramer, his suc...

Liza Diaz Lalova
The Meteorological Weather Station operated by the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) in Santa Cruz Island received its most recent maintenance check in October 2015. This important upkeep was carried out with the support of the Weather and Hydrology National Institute of Ecuador and with the co...

Francesca Cunninghame
A workshop "Conservation planning for the critically endangered mangrove finch (Camarhynchus heliobates) 2016 - 2020" took place in Puerto Ayora from the 15 – 18 September, 2015. Participants included international specialists who have worked with mangrove finch conservation, project partners ...

Michelle Schuiteman
THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS are one of the best preserved island ecosystems in the world. The observations Charles Darwin made when he visited the Islands in 1835 can still be seen and have been studied further by hundreds of scientists around the world. Gaining an understanding of the biological and...

Liza Diaz Lalova
On your next trip to Galapagos, don’t forget to bring your SmartPhone!  You can be CDF’s “eyes and ears” as you visit these beautiful islands – after all, our ornithologists are very talented but they can’t be everywhere at once.  We are working hard to ...

Israel Castro
Do you take your internet connection for granted?  Can you remember what it was like in the days of slow dial-up connections?  That's a bit like how it is in Galapagos now.  Our internet connection has to make the 600-mile journey from mainland Ecuador and then get through cabling an...

Liza Diaz Lalova
If you would like to see the world from the comfort of your house, we have good news.  Through the new project 'Galapagos 360', you can view spectacular images of the islands without leaving your chair.  New geographic technology, online accessibility of large amounts of information and re...

Birgit Fessl
The Galapagos Landbird Conservation Program, conducted by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), is developing strategies to monitor and assess the status of landbird species in Galapagos. Thanks to the teamwork of Birds In The Hand, LLC, CDF, the GN...

Heinke Jäger
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) received a donation of high resolution satellite images from the DigitalGlobe Foundation through Brown University, US. This donation has been received by Lynn Carlson, manager of the EARTHLab at Brown University, and Heinke Jäger, a CDF scientist. Other team...

Francesca Cunninghame
In 2014 the collecting of eggs from the wild and captive breeding of mangrove finch chicks (Camarhynchus heliobates), a critically endangered species of the famous "Darwin's finches", began. The Mangrove Finch Conservation Project, conducted by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galap...

Heinke Jäger
The symposium “Galápagos 2015: Science, Conservation, and History in the 180 years since Darwin” gathered about 60 researchers, experts, students and passionate audience for the conservation of the species in the Galapagos Islands. Pacific division of the American A...

Heinke Jäger
The unique animals and plants of the Galapagos archipelago have experienced few extinctions, mainly due to the late colonization of the islands by humans and the high level of protection of most of the archipelago as an uninhabited national park. However, changes in land use and the presence of inva...

Paola Díaz Freire
Professor Dennis Geist, President of the CDF, remarks, “This is a transformation for the Charles Darwin Foundation, a real opportunity to take a major step forward in our scientific support of Galápagos conservation and support of national scientific capacity. Dr. Arturo Izurieta Vale...

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