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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.

Leslie León
On the 2nd of June to the 1st of July 2021, the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp was held, within the Coastal Fisheries Initiative – Challenge Fund Ecuador, a project implemented by the World Bank with the support of the Charles Darwin Foundation, and which was technically managed ty EDES (Business S...

Leslie León
The Charles Darwin Foundation is participating in the IUCN World Conservation Congress with the session titled Bioinvasions in the Eastern Tropical Pacific and the Galapagos Islands: a biosafety network initiative presented by our scientist Dr. Inti Keith, principal investigator of the Marine Invasi...

Leslie León
With approximately 60 people in attendance, the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) officially launched the first "Nuestras Raíces" (Our Roots) cookbook of traditional dishes from Isabela Island. The event was attended by CDF Executive Director Rakan Zahawi, International Affairs Coordinator Joha...

Michael K. Tanner, César Viteri and Carlos A. Silva
Oceans are key providers of ecosystem services (ES), provisioning environmental goods at global scale that underpin the livelihoods and wellbeing of entire populations. These ES range from providing food and raw materials, such as fish, sand, and rocks, to regulating vital biological and environment...

Leslie León
The Charles Darwin Foundation's (CDF) 62nd anniversary Open House was a total success. Approximately 500 people visited the Research Station's facilities to learn more about the ongoing projects that contribute to the Galapagos conservation. Explanation of the Marine Invasive Species Program. Photo...

Leslie León
The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) is preparing to welcome the Galapagos community to its 2021 Open House to commemorate our 62 years of institutional life. The Open House will have limited capacity and will be in compliance with all the biosecurity measures that we must still maintain. The project...

Leslie León
Enthusiasm, positive energy and good attitude are the most obvious characteristics that I notice when looking at the youths who are part of the "Shark Ambassadors", the Science Club of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). This is a non-formal education project that aims to provide a learning space f...

Pelayo Salinas de León
Cassiopeia, the pregnant scalloped hammerhead shark tagged last February with a satellite transmitter at the Galapagos Marine Reserve, has reached the coasts of the Gulf of Panama, a known nursery area  for this species. After covering more than 4000km, Cassiopeia has provided the first round-t...

Ainoa Nieto
Press Release.- Scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine (ICM), the Animal Health Research Center (INIA-CISA), the Complutense University, and the European University of Madrid, together with technicians from the Galapagos National ...

Isabel Grijalva
World Albatross Day, which is celebrated on June 19th each year, aims to highlight this species and draw the attention of governments, fishermen, researchers and the general public to the problems faced by these birds. It seeks to highlight possible solutions to these threats. The theme proposed by ...

Dedicated to one of AWF's pillars, Humankind and Nature, this fundraising campaign will support the CDF's Scalesia Forest Restoration Project, which aims to protect this unique habitat in the Galapagos Islands. The Scalesia forest is dominated by the endemic giant daisy tree Scalesia pedunculata an...

Ernesto Bustamante
Isabela's recipe book "Our Roots" (Our Roots) will be officially launched on august 20th of 2021. The cookbook features twelve typical dishes of the island. It Is divided into three sections: four entrances , four main dishes and four desserts. The authors, high school students from Isabela with the...

Diego Ellis Soto
It was a cloudy and rainy day shortly after 6 am, when Freddy Cabrera, Jose Haro and I met up at a bus stop in Puerto Ayora to make our way to the humid highlands of the island. As usual, our day revolved around tortoises, but instead of a long walk to reach nesting sites, we chose the comfort of to...

Tania Villafuerte
The Charles Darwin Research Station is recognized for its work in science and research. These qualities were precisely what, from a young age, made me interested in becoming part of this great family. I am currently a student at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, studying a degree in...

Denisse Fierro
---Press Release--- Researchers from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego, together with the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), revealed the results of the first archipelago-wide study about fish dive...

A coalition of groups, including a newly formed organization backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, have mobilized $43 million for efforts to restore degraded habitats in the Galápagos Islands, an archipelago renowned for its endemic species and central role in scientists’ understanding of ...

Ernesto Bustamante
At the end of 2019, the CDF team on Isabela had a clear plan about the main education, sustainability and community outreach activities to be executed in 2020.However, March arrived and all of our plans, had to be postponed until further notice. It was not until June that the possibility of these ac...

Isabel Grijalva
Galapagos Research, formerly Noticias de Galápagos, is the research journal of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF). The journal is edited and supervised by Dr. Alan Tye, a member of the CDF General Assembly. Here we publish research articles, archived news items of i...

Pelayo Salinas de León
For the first time, scientists have documented in near real-time details of the migration of a critically endangered pregnant scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) from the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador to Isla del Coco in Costa Rica, located over 700 km away. In an international collaboration...

Isabel Grijalva
The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF) would like to extend its heartfelt condolences on the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on the 9th of April at the age of 99. His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was a Patron of the CDF and...

Kyana Pike
If you visit one of the tourist ranches in the highlands of Santa Cruz, you would expect to find plenty of tortoises roaming around freely enjoying the well-manicured pastures. What you might not expect to find is a muddy researcher, crouched down in the bushes, diligently recording a tortoise&rsquo...

Isabel Grijalva y Nicolás Moity
Science is creative, just as music, painting or theater. Science is also an expression of art . Scientists use their creativity and imagination to advance ideas and design research tools that can be applied to study different ecosystems. Particularly in the Galapagos, being creative is not only a qu...

Patricia Jaramillo Díaz
Lecocarpus lecocarpoides was last seen eight years ago, and this temporary absence led us to believe that the population of this species on this island had suffered and was on the brink of extinction as only a few individuals remained on nearby islets. However, fortunately during a field trip in Nov...

--- Press Release --- The Board of Directors of the Charles Darwin Foundation has announced the appointment of Dr. Rakan (“Zak”) A. Zahawi as Executive Director of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), effective March 1, 2021. As the chief executive officer, he will be responsible fo...

Jack Norys - Randall James
Almost a year ago, the Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Programme began fieldwork testing a heat balance model for Galapagos giant tortoises. This model, presented by Nigel Blake, predicts the internal temperature range of tortoises and their metabolic rates based on a number of variables includi...

Isabela Tapia
Introduced species represent the most important driver of biodiversity loss for oceanic islands (Brook, Sodhi and Bradshaw, 2008). Indeed, invasive species are the main threat for the ecological integrity of the unique marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the Galapagos (DPNG, 2014). We, the Marine I...

Leslie León
December arrives and is synonymous with birds, because in this month each year, the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) in collaboration with other institutions holds the "Christmas Bird Count". But, what is this initiative about? The "Christmas Bird Count" is an activity that began more than 100 years...

Rosita Calderon
Working in the Marine Science Department (Bio-Mar) at the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) is a unique experience, full of learning and discoveries, where daily I get the chance to learn about, understand and identify marine invertebrates in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (RMG). When I started out as ...

Leslie León
The Charles Darwin Foundation's Education and Community Outreach Program (ECO Program) and the Communication and Outreach Center "MaxCine" of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior have been holding virtual conferences through their education programs. The age group for both organizations is be...

Byron Delgado
“Try to be like the turtle, at ease in your own shell.”- Bill Copeland Humans are one of the most evolved and rationals beings on Earth, but there are some things that we can learn. In this blog I’m going to share with you a retrospective analysis of a fantastic and simple life. ...

Carolina Carrión
Every year, between February and June, the "hot season" returns to Galapagos. It is during this time, as the haze clears away and the sun shines, that the vegetation mapping project team goes out to fly the drone. In mid-February 2020, the conditions were perfect for one of my favorite field trips: ...

Wilson Rivadeneira
I am pleased to share this blog to tell you what the art of fishing means to my family, my university experience and, my understanding of the importance of responsible management of the marine resources, as it is the livelihood of many “Galapagueñas” families like mine. My intenti...

Isabel Grijalva
--- Press Release --- This year’s General Assembly of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) for the Galapagos, which took place on November 9 and 10, was conducted entirely virtually with the first morning open to the public, for the first time, through Facebook Live (https://bit.ly/3nhhyqk). De...

Leslie León
A documentary, Galapagos, Hope for the Future, was released on December 12th, 2019 at the Teatro Capitol in Quito, as part of the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). The film’s international premiere was in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on October 28th,...

Isabel Grijalva
Dear Friends and colleagues, It is our pleasure to present our 2019 Annual Report. As we prepared this year's results, the world is confronting unprecedented medical, economic, human, and environmental challenges.  Our thoughts and appreciation to CDF's donors, dedicated governance institutio...

The Galapagos Marine Reserve and Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is the theme of this year's 49th annual General Assembly of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). This year it will be held on November 9 and 10, and due to the COVID19 pandemic, the meeting will be completely virtual. During...

Gustavo Jiménez-Uzcátegui
---Press Release---Galapagos penguins (Spheniscus mendiculus) and Flightless cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi) are species that have long been studied in the Galapagos Islands. During the last three decades, monitoring of these populations has taken place in the west of the archipelago. The ecologi...

Leslie León
---Press Release--- The Charles Darwin Research Station (CDF) is now considered one of the best attractions in the Galapagos Islands. The CDF became one of the winners of the Travellers' Choice 2020 Award which was given out by TripAdvisor. This award is given out to the best destinations, airlines,...

Luka Negoita
On June 15, 2020, Paúl Mayorga and I set out to deliver fencing supplies and survey 240 endangered Opuntia tree cacti that had been planted on Española island over the last few years by the Galapagos Verde 2050 project (GV2050). We hadn’t been able to return to this island for te...

Byron Delgado
The contribution of the fishing sector to the economy and to human food has been widely documented. And during the COVID19 pandemic, it was no exception. This season, one of the most important activities and sectors, for the sustenance and food for the human population of Galapagos, has been the loc...

Diana Loyola
As a galapagueña, I am thrilled to be part of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and thus be able to help with the conservation of the Galapagos Islands. The project that studies sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) opened its doors to me two years ago, when I started as a field assistant. This is w...

---Press Release--- A team of international scientists have devised a new monitoring and reporting framework to help protect World Heritage Sites from almost 300 different invasive alien species globally, including, rats (Rattus spp.), cats (Felis catus), lantana (Lantana camara) and Argentine ants ...

Isabel Grijalva
--- Press Release --- In a symbolic and virtual event, complying with the biosecurity measures imposed by the country's health authorities in order to avoid the spread of COVID19, on the morning of the 15th of September 2020, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Charles Darwin Founda...

Leslie León
--- Press Release --- A recent study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), involving several institutions, including the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), found that the number of fish in some tropical regions could decrease by 30% to 40% by 2100 from the impact of climate change. As a result, fishe...

Heinke Jäger
Agriculture production started in Galapagos at the beginning of the 20th century and is now being practiced extensively on the four inhabited islands. Even so, there is limited information on the biodiversity of the agricultural areas. Most research in Galapagos so far has focused on the protected a...

-- Press Release -- The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) received on Monday, August 24th, 2020, vital laboratory equipment for the islands, made possible by a generous donation by Kristin Hettermann and Sven Lindblad to the Galapagos Community Relief Fund. Launched in March, the Galapagos Community ...

Gabriela Sommerfeld
In March of this year, the Ecuadorian government declared a health emergency because of the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. As in the rest of the world, this decision paralyzed most of the industries and economic production, in order to prevent the spread of the virus, thus avoiding massive i...

Isabel Grijalva
--- Press Release --- For the first time, scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation, in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park Directorate, the Ocean Exploration Trust and an international team of deep-sea experts have discovered fragile coral and sponge communities hosting thirty deep-...

Francesca Cunninghame
---Press release--- In early 2020 at Playa Tortuga Negra, Isabela Island, during the shortened field season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, researches from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) found 14 mangrove finch (Camarhynchus heliobates) breeding pairs, a slight increase from previous...

Juan Manuel García
The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF), in its 61 years of existence, has represented, in the best possible way, the search for scientific knowledge in the Galapagos Islands. For this reason, we wanted to commemorate this anniversary by taking a trip to Galapagos and CDF&rsquo...

Luka Negoita
Only having been settled by humans since early 20th century, the Galapagos islands harbor some of the most intact natural communities in the world. However, these islands have nonetheless faced impacts from human development and introduced species which now threaten the integrity of these ecosystems...

Isabel Grijalva
For the first time, scientists have observed a broadnose sevengill shark Notorynchus cepedianus and bluntnose sixgill Hexanchus griseus in the deep waters of the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR) off the northern coast of Floreana and Española. Both species were confirmed by elasmobranch...

Isabel Grijalva
--- Press Release --- The Japanese Association for Galapagos (日本ガラパゴスの会 JAGA) and Una Gotita del Colibrí Project, donated 150 boxes of food on Isabela Island and 100 food kits on Santa Cruz Island to vulnerable families in the Galapagos community, which have been affected by the economic cris...

Lenyn Betancourt
A piece of rock, an octopus and a piece of bone could be considered simple objects for most people. However, for those working in the Natural History Collections of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), a piece of rock could explain the volcanic origin of the Galapagos islands; an octopus is part of ...

Macarena Parra Díaz
Immerse yourself in a new adventure guided by the green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) of the Galapagos Marine Reserve, and explore with us their exciting and intriguing lives.Our scientists are working on a project that aims to reduce the threat of boat strikes on Green Turtles in Galapagos. As part ...

Joshua Vela Fonseca
We can all support the science generation. Before graduating from Visual Arts I never thought I would be able to work alongside scientists in their field studies at the most pristine corners of the Galapagos Islands. But conservation could start with our every-day habits at home and end up becoming ...

Isabel Grijalva
On the 19th of June, we celebrated World Albatross Day for the first time. The date has been chosen by Agreement on the conservation of Albatross and Petrels, ACAP, to honor these magnificent birds and to highlight the current conservation crisis that threatens them. Galapagos albatross on the Espa...

Esme Plunkett
Today, it is believed species go extinct across the globe without their existence having ever been discovered (Lees & Pimm, 2015). This could have easily been the story of Galvezia leucantha var. leucantha, whose population was discovered in 1967 (Wiggins, 1968; Jaramillo et al., 2018). However ...

Isabel Grijalva
--- Press release --- Surveys of the Little Vermilion Flycatcher on Santa Cruz Island carried out by scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and park rangers from the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), found that six chicks have fledged their nests and joined the existing popula...

Isabel Grijalva
--Press Release -- The Charles Darwin Foundation donated 200 protective suits to the Galapagos National Park Directorate, to support efforts to mitigate the health emergency due to Covid-19.These supplies were delivered on the 2nd of June, directly to the director of the Galapagos National Park, Mgs...

Isabel Grijalva
For World Ocean Day 2020, we want you to bring the ocean home!  The sea is the biggest ecosystem in the whole world, and humans depend greatly on it. However, the oceans are facing many underlying challenges and problems. Are you able to identify these problems and capture them in a creative w...

Isabel Grijalva
1. Support the protection of 30% of the ocean in Marine Protected Areas by 2030 by signing this petition: https://www.campaignfornature.org/ #Campaignfornature Photo by: Joshua Vela Fonseca, CDF.   2. Reduce your plastic usage Photo by: Jackeline Rodríguez, CDF. The more plastic you...

Sarita Mahtani
In March 2020, the Natural History Collections joined the Galápagos Verde 2050 project team to collect specimens on the island of Baltra and help plant endemic species. Together, we contribute towards research for biodiversity conservation of the Galapagos Islands. I arrived at the Galapagos...

--Press Release-- On May 16th 2020, the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) donated sixteen hospital mattresses to the Municipality of Santa Cruz and distributed food kits to 200 vulnerable families in the mainland Ecuador and on Santa Cruz Island. CDF made this donation to help mitigate the impact...

Rebecca Ditgen
Monitoring and cleaning an installation of water-saving technology at a tourist site on Santa Cruz island. Alberto Mena (left) & Rebecca Selfridge Ditgen (right). Photo: Felipe Cornejo. I am nearing the end of six months of volunteering for the Galapagos Verde 2050 (GV2050) project. I&rsquo...

Isabel Grijalva
--- Press Release --- The Charles Darwin Foundation has donated personal protective equipment, including N95 masks to local institutions in Galapagos to help in the fight against Covid-19. These supplies arrived at Baltra airport on Friday, May 8th, and were formally handed over today to the Galapa...

Pelayo Salinas de León
--- Press Release --- A recent publication in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, a global reference for climate change studies, suggested that the enchanted islands can be a natural laboratory, ideal for understanding this threat and implementing innovative solutions to address ...

Nicolas Moity
To honor our commitment with Ecoventura for conservation, we embarked on the M/V Galapagos Sky from February 23-29, 2020, initiating a new project: sea temperature monitoring in the Galapagos Marine Reserve to evaluate the effects of c...

Edgardo Civallero
Pieces of chinaware, glass bottles, pottery jugs... Those and other artifacts make up the Colección Maruri, an archaeological collection currently housed at the Library & Archive of the Charles Darwin Research Station. They are the evidence of human occupation in Galapagos since at least ...

Thank you all for your suggestions for the name of one of our newborn Galapagos giant tortoises. For those who missed it, we welcomed the latest Galapagos giant tortoise newborns in early March. There were 9 born in total, and to celebrate we invite you to help us in naming one of them. Newborn to...

María José Barragán
---News--- ‘Sustainability’ is a notion that many sectors of the society, market and states, at global scale, are taking seriously, from varied standpoints. Research, industry, science, decision and policy making, education, innovation are all, integrating this notion in current practice...

Ernesto Bustamante
Three years have passed since the institutional presence of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) on Isabela was resumed in January 2017. During this time, we have gradually consolidated our presence on the island, largely thanks to the hiring of a coordinator, who acts as the main contact and represe...

Clare Peabody
In the humid highlands of Santa Cruz Island, just north of the village of Bellavista, a dirt road meanders through coffee and sugarcane farms before coming to a dead end at the trailhead to Media Luna, named for the half-moon shaped volcanic crater that stands guard over the park entrance. Here lies...

Isabel Grijalva
-- Press Release -- The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF) has donated two ventilators to the Republic of Ecuador Hospital on Santa Cruz Island in order to contribute to the efforts of the Governing Council of Galapagos (CGREG) and the Municipality of Santa Cruz to address the...

Luka Negoita y Patricia Jaramillo
The following is a creative depiction of what Galapagos could be like in the year 2050, written from the perspective of someone at that time. Though we find ourselves in a global crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have not lost hope in a bright future. Our vision holds a positive and realistic vi...

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...

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