Latest from the Technical Director of Project Isabela
Dear team,
I am writing firstly to thank you for your support during my trip in October and secondly to give you an update on the project since that time.
Please pass on my sincere thanks to all who helped to organise the events that I attended during my time in London and who helped to make it all run smoothly. It is very reassuring to know that there is such a large network of supporters working with us to help conservation in Galapagos, and I hope that my talks aided to reinforce the hard work that is being done by the Galapagos National Park Service and Charles Darwin Foundation.
Thanks to the financial support received from the GCT in December, the Project has been able to advance with its objectives for this year, namely training of personnel and dogs for the campaign in Isabela, whilst progressing with the huge task of eradicating the goats from Santiago Island.
At this moment we have 70 dogs at our kennels on Santa Cruz island, most of which have been bred from a New Zealand breed specific to this type of work. As you can imagine, training a large number of dogs like this takes an incredible amount of effort on behalf of our hunters. In order to make this process as efficient as possible, training manuals and courses have been developed to ensure our hunters are training their dogs correctly. A certification process has also been initiated to monitor the training level of each dog, and any dogs that do not meet with the specified criteria have to repeat their training.
All dogs and hunters have been working very hard on Santiago Island this year, providing in situ training and getting closer to the target of having all dogs fully trained and ready to work in Isabela next year. New hunting techniques are also being tested on Santiago and are providing excellent results. Past hunting methods saw hunters splitting up and working different parts of the island, but hunters are now all hunting the same block of land in a line formation, around 100m apart. This technique ensures all goats seen in a particular area will be removed, thus lowering the number of educated escapees.
Whilst activities have been concentrated on training of personnel and hunting dogs, the Project has been making good use of time spent in Santiago to search for and eradicate introduced plant species that are also damaging the environment. When goat densities reach low figures in the coming months these plants will become a serious plague, as there will be fewer goats to keep them under control. Extensive monitoring has been carried out for pests such as blackberrys, Orange, Naranjilla and Avocados which when found have been sprayed with approved herbicides.
Monitoring activities have also been continuing for the feral pigs on Santiago. I'm sure you'll remember that the 18-month monitoring period, which began after the last pig was removed in November 2000, will end next month. To date, no sign of pigs have been found and the hunters have covered the island intensively to ensure that this is the case. I'm almost positive that next month I'll be writing to inform you of the official announcement by the Director of the Galapagos National Park Service that Santiago is free from wild pigs for the first time in 127 years. Santiago island will become the largest island in the world from which feral pigs have been eradicated.
With the continued support of the GCT, the Isabela Project will be able to continue protecting the biodiversity of the Galapagos archipelago through the complete eradication of goats from Santiago Island, and also helping the local community through the capacitation of personnel to use new techniques and technologies.
On behalf of the Isabela Project team, I'd once again like to express my appreciation to you for your on-going support for this crucial project. Your help is vital to the success of the Project and I hope we can continue to rely on your generosity for many years to come.
Felipe Cruz
Technical Director
Isabela Project
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