GCT Blog

Sometimes we are in such a hurry for this or that we do not see the small, the large, the important, and as a consequence are not connected to the World at all.

A Galapagos Carpenter bee drinking the nectar of a

Chiococca alba plant © Godfrey Merlen

In my garden there are trees and bushes that pass through all stages of their lives.  One of these stages, the transition from tree to soil, leaves, bark and wood under the sun and rain that slowly, yet persistently, crumble them away.  A gardener might find this unsightly for the joy of the garden is an array of flowers and greenery busting forth in the celebration of life, and might, diligently, remove all traces of this untidiness. Yet he would be destroying the world of the Enchanted Islands.

For Bees love this mess of failing vegetation!  It is their joy to find an old Palo Santo tree in the first month of the new year.  Without this indispensable resource they would die!  And why? For bye and bye these wood borers, Xylocopa darwinii by name, will create their perfect nests, where, far from the prying eye of the Woodpecker Finch, the eggs will hatch into larvae and larvae into bees.

Bees pollinate, and perhaps these far flying, larger than life black bumblebees, are the most important insects in the whole Archipelago.  They are the source of crosspollination, the essence of genetic strength.

A female Carpenter Bee making her sawdust

© Godfrey Merlen

So what did we not see?  The pile of sawdust, as fine and regular as from any carpenters shop, lying about the base of the old tree.  And of course there is the buzzing, and such buzzing as would put a bee hive to shame for these are social bees too and like to nest alongside one another, even watchful of others for a ready made nest, if it could be grabbed unobserved.  The crunching of wood is audible, the carting of the dust carried out by shoving with the head, pushing with feathered legs!

At the end of the long perfectly round tunnel the nest cavity is formed.  Here the eggs are lain.  Pollen is deposited alongside for the larva to feed upon.  The young bee will take down the partition that seals it form the outside world, and will emerge, a green eyed golden brown male, a striking glossy black female.

Partition of duties...Yes.  The females are the carpenters, very good ones at that.  The males, far less numerous, patrol and drink the nectar of endemic Scalesia flowers.

Xylocopa bees, known locally as Bungas, are not aggressive  but the females do have a nifty sting if trapped.  Nevertheless you can take them to safety from a building in cupped hands....and we must save each one!

Nature uses resources without contamination.  Old trees support ecosystems.

Mystery Object 3 is.... a small Porcillopora coral head. During a study with Jerry Wellington (the man who put the marine area of Galapagos on the map in the '70s), I stained the surface with non-poisonous maroon dye to indicate over time the deposition of calcium which builds the homes of the coral animals.

During this 2 year study, the staining process was repeated at the beginning of the hot and cold seasons. It was clear that growth in the warm season was up to 30% greater than in the cold season. Corals have a 'best' temperature for growth but temperature is critical for their survival. If the temperature reaches more than 29 - 30 degrees celcius, the remarkable partnership between the animals and their photosynthetic partners, the one-celled algae called zooxanthellae, breaks down and the corals may die. This happened in Galapagos during the very strong El Nino events of 1982 and 1998 and many corals died. This is known as coral bleaching and is a major threat of global warming.

Can you guess what this is? © Godfrey Merlen

Mystery object 2 is... the ear bones from a sperm whale!  The life of sperm whales is still very little understood.  They spend 90% of their lives underwater fishing in the darkness of
the deep scattering layer, a dense congregation of life including the rather large predatory squids and the definitively small Myctophid fish with their remarkable photophores illuminating the still waters.

How do the great whales feed?  Echolocation.  Sound pulses are emitted from the movement of air past precisely controlled muscle pads which reflect off objects ahead of the whales.  The reflected sounds are received by the ears and interpreted by the brain, a very large brain indeed!  This system has allowed the sperm whale to be a very effective feeder without the need for great eyesight. 

Unfortunately for the sperm whale the spermacetti, or oil contained within the head, led to
a great slaughter of these fantastic creatures and this was especially true in the Galapagos Islands.  In 1991 we established a Whale Sanctuary around the Galapagos to the 40 nautical mile limit of the Marine Reserve in which groups of females can fish and live their lives in their own way.  A hydrophone deployed in the vicinity of the feeding animals will thrill and fill with awe the mind that hears the resounding "clicks" and will remind the curious of one of evolutions great tricks... echolocation.

Can anyone guess what this is a picture of? Send your suggestions to gct@gct.org or write on our facebook page!

I have just picked up a book entitled Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare.  It was published in 1980 and inside there is a note to me from the author, Paul Colinvaux, that states it is one of a scarce edition with illustrations.  It is a book about nature and the reasons for everything being the way it is.  Its a good book and worth reading.  Paul Colinvaux visited Galapagos in 1967 to explore the rarely visited volcano Fernandina, as reported in a previous chapter on this blog.  Thirteen years later he had spread his view to embrace the world and how the inanimate and animate worlds combine to sustain life on earth.  On page 11 he applies carrying capacity as being the controlling factor for the population of different types of animal.  This is fixed by the environment in which they live.

 I would like to bring his world view back to Galapagos as the implications of this environmentally controlling factor is of great interest and vital for the survival of the biodiversity of the Islands. (Biodiversity being the sum of all the living organisms that naturally occur in a given place, including the vital bacteria, the gorgeous Vermillion Flycatcher (right) and the charismatic Galapagos Penguin).

So, the populations of all the living organisms are controlled by the carrying capacity of a place, in this case the Islands.  Tortoises, Penguins, Flightless Cormorants, finches, sharks, Barnacle Blennies and corals, not to forget the plants (including the phytoplankton) and everything else.  This sounds a little like Douglas Adams but unfortunately for the dolphins their cheery good bye "So long and thanks for all the fish" is unlikely to be fulfilled!

The problem begins to unravel itself.  Once upon a time everybody got along fine because there was a balance between all the organisms, the gases in the sky, and the chemicals in the sea. It was not perfect, for the sun suddenly had explosions, and there were ups and downs but in general Camelot prevailed.  Yes animals ate plants and other animals but this kept everyone on their toes and looking toned and alert!

Then the aegis that shielded the mystical Galapagos, the Noe Reall Islands of the Spanish, the haunted, shifting islands that earned the name Enchanted, suffered a mishap.  A wooden vessel, sporting a long bowsprit with multiple headsails, and a steel dolphin striker, hit it.  All of a sudden there were the Islands for all to see, untouched, not haunted but real, Die Arche Noah im Pazifik (the Noah's Ark of the Pacific) of Irenaus Eibl Eibesfeldt.

So that was that. 

The aegis was the natural environment in which the nature of the Islands lived, it was the balance between species, it was the controlling factor that dictated the population sizes of Mangrove Finches, of Land Iguanas, of blood sucking finches (what a clever idea those birds had), of sharks and dolphins.  It had been there for millions of years, accumulating the most astonishing group of animals and plants of any place on the planet, refining them, diversifying them and they modifying the environment, in a world unto itself. 

Now everything has complicated itself.  Of course the goat wanted a bit of the environment for its population, the cow, the rat, the mouse, the cat.  They ALL wanted a bit of the fun.  And, oh dear, we too!

Conclusion

So the natural aegis went.  We the reflective King Pin are of natural origin.  We see and feel that the nature, our origin, was the aegis, it is therefore part of us and that if nature built a Noah's Ark in the Pacific then we are now that aegis to set the natural carrying capacity back, restore the enchantment that in truth is NATURE.

Season's Greetings from Galapagos - together we can work to protect these Enchanted Islands.

The breast bone of a Flightless Cormorant! Very well done to Mike Jackson - spot on!

The spread of insects between the islands can be as big a worry as the introduction of completely foreign species. One major issue that is not often considered by tourists is the attraction of insects to the bright lights of ships that travel around the Archipelago. The extract below is from a Galapagos National Park bulletin about Godfrey's recent work on this issue.

"The Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) has received a donation of 20 UV lamps from Conservacion Internacional that act as brilliant insect attractors - the installation of these 'traps' or 'zappers' will soon be mandatory on all vessels in the GNPS.

These lamps are all part of the prevention and control mechanisms established in Resolution No. CSA-126-2010 of Agrocalidad (some legislation that Godfrey was heavily involved with) which seeks to prevent the introduction and spread of exotic species between the islands that are attracted by the lights of boats. Through research entomologist, Dr Lazaro Roque-Albelo, who worked for the Charles Darwin Foundation and our chief scientific adviser and valuable independent scientist, Godfrey Merlen, we obtained data that allowed us to take management measures and in this specific case, preventive measures to continue protecting the islands from invasive species" said Edwin Naula, Director of the Galapagos National Park.

The lamps donated by Conservacion Internacional are designed in such a way that would not affect any other species of the islands - they will only attract insects in the region of the boats. This means that their introduction should not disturb the natural processes of dispersion or alter any evolutionary processes.

Can anyone guess what this is a picture of? Pretty tricky... Send your suggestions to gct@gct.org or write on our facebook page!

Can you guess what this is? © Godfrey Merlen

In 1968 Paul Colinvaux, the paleoclimatologist, wrote the article "Eruption on Narborough" [the former English name for Fernandina Island].  The eruption was, in fact, a 1000 foot instantaneous drop of the caldera floor in a gigantic multi megaton explosion. Its extensive lake evaporated. The 1800 Bahama ducks, delicate black-necked stilts and many species of plants vanished leaving a massive hole 3000 feet deep.

Yet, for all the geologic drama which fired the imagination of the human mind and caused a scurry of human visitors to the smoldering debris of this dusty void, the real event that was unfolding was of a very different sort; a question of biological survival in virgin habitats.

Colinvaux knew that when Charles Darwin visited the Archipelago in 1835 the islands visited, namely San Cristobal, Floreana, and Santiago, were "even then the homes of men".  The clearing of land, killing of the giant tortoises, and the introduction of domestic animals and plants were features of those homes. Forests of endemic trees vanished, introduced species spread quickly. Darwin was just in time to observe the biological uniqueness of each island, and interpret their isolation within the Archipelago.
 
New homes grew on Isabela in the 1890s and the last "lush" island, Santa Cruz, with its ancient forests and abundance of native and endemic wildlife, followed in the 1920s. Inexorably the Islands became "unnatural".

Colinvaux was worried and painted Fernandina well...."true, it was no substitute for the wetter richer islands that had gone, but it was virgin. Hardly a man had been there. Not one of his animals had been introduced. Not even a rat. High in the clouds which ringed the island summit was unique plant and animal life, life totally unaffected by the presence of man, perhaps the last truly virgin tropical community left on the earth."

And it had exploded - had this wonder of pure nature vanished?

But, in fact, it was that very pure nature that had spoken on Tuesday, the 11 June 1968! Yet the blast that hurled ten-ton boulders across the plains surrounding the caldera had not destroyed life in this magical world.  The unique Scalesia forest that circled the huge basin as a haven above the clouds survived, mostly.  The native and endemic life survived too.

So all's well that end's well?  Not quite!

How many times has this event happened in the life of the island?  How many times have lakes formed and the birds alighted for the first time on new still waters.  Perhaps in time gone by the totality of life around the caldera was wiped clean. 

Colinvaux made an analysis of the plant life he found on a tuff cone on the caldera floor in 1966. Of the 25 samples identified, all are native to Galapagos and at least 33% were endemic. All are known from Isabela Island.  They "moved" to Fernandina by the wind or were carried by birds.  

Thus the extraordinary wilderness landscape of Fernandina is a product of unleashed tectonic forces, its colonization by native wildlife a product of time and the possibility of its arrival from existing populations elsewhere....

What happens when the birds who carry the seeds no longer exist? What happens if the winds move empty handed or carry the weeds of the world? What is the future of our virgin island? Our challenge is not only a Fernandina without introduced species but also to ensure that native birds and wild winds continue to move in nature's time and space, for the result is nature's treasure, Galapagos!

45 years ago, Colinvaux stated "Doves and finches came into our camp. As we dropped off to sleep two owls were hovering over us.  Two hundred yards to the north were the lifeless lava flows of the outer slopes. Six hundred yards to the south was that snoring void.  And between those two sterile things was this wonderful plateau of virgin life".

In 2010, I spoke the same words.  There is time but dwindling.