Recently in Wildlife Category

The Galapagos National Park Service (GNPS) and the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), with support from local and foreign volunteers, have resumed a sea turtle monitoring program that measures a range of data related to the nesting season of this species.

The monitoring process has made it possible to record the number of females who come to deposit their eggs at popular nesting sites throughout the archipelago, assess the reproductive success of the species and its population status. Additionally, the program is observing the effects of human activity on sea turtle populations.

For the past seven years, the CDF has coordinated sea turtle monitoring. The GNP is now leading this process.The Galapagos are one of the main nesting sites of the green turtle Chelonia mydas. The species' survival is being threatened by fishing (the tortoises are often caught as bycatch), egg collection in regions outside Galapagos, and the negative effects of climate change on nesting sites. Global efforts are being made to assist the recovery of this species, and the GNPS is coordinating the conservation of these reptiles in the Galapagos archipelago.

An Australian ladybird on the Galapagos Islands is succeeding in controlling the invasive cottony cushion scale (Icerya purchasi). This is according to results of work carried out by scientists Mark and Christina Hoddle of the University of California, Riverside, and Roy Van Driesche of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in cooperation with Charlotte Causton, adjunct at the Charles Darwin Foundation, CDF staff, the Galapagos National Park Service, and the Galapagos Inspection and Quarantine System (SICGAL) during the last three months of 2009.

While work is still ongoing, data collected during the first phase of the study suggest that the mariquita or Vedalia beetle, an Australian ladybird (Rodolia cardinalis) has survived and spread, while suppressing the cottony cushion scale on many native Galapagos plants, including the white mangrove, Acacias, and Scalesia. However, there are several plant species still being affected by the cottony cushion scale, and further study is required to determine why the mariquita is not effective on these host plants. In addition to being effective, the project has been safe, as no evidence from field observations or the large cage studies was found of attack by R. cardinalis on non-target insects.

Many GCT supporters will have heard the sad news that Lady Philippa Scott, a former vice president of the Galapagos Conservation Trust, has died. Lady Scott was the widow of leading conservationist, Sir Peter Scott, and had supported GCT since the very beginning.

Waved Albatross - Lady Philippa Scott

Seen here is a beautiful Waved Albatross image, just one of the many that Lady Scott donated to GCT's slide library.

Julian Fitter, a founder of GCT and current Ambassador writes:
Serendipity is a word that comes to mind when thinking of Phil's marriage to Peter Scott. Peter, the son of Antarctic Explorer Robert Falcon Scott, was extremely successful in many ways, and not the easiest person to be married to. Phil though with her South African upbringing brought just the right ingredients to their partnership. Not content to simply be a supporter of the 'Peter Scott show', though she certainly was, she developed her own interests and skills, which in their turn enabled Peter to achieve so much.

Phil was an accomplished photographer, illustrating several of Peter's books, a keen Scuba diver, and a passionate conservationist with a particular interest in the Antarctic and the great whales. After Peter's untimely death she continued to be an important part of the Slimbridge team championing  conservation. Her support for Galapagos, as a Vice-President of the Galapagos Conservation Trust was typical of her wide interests and strong commitment.

Phil was one of the last of the generation of conservation pioneers, people who were born before the word conservation was used in relation to the environment. We owe Phil and her fellow pioneers a huge debt in waking us up to the dangers the natural world is facing, and we owe it to her to continue the fight.

Julian Fitter
Maketu, New Zealand
22 January 2010

According to The Guardian, France was in mourning on Sunday for one of its oldest and best-loved lotharios, a giant Sychelles tortoise named Kiki, who died at the age of 146. Staff at

Kiki. Photo © F-G GRANDIN/AFP

the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris announced that its veteran resident had succumbed last week to an infection. They paid tribute to the zoo's "doyen", whose distinctive personality and "demonstrative lovemaking" had made him one of France's best known animals.

Something which Charles Darwin failed to spot when he visited the Galapagos Islands was the smile on those male Blue-footed boobies which skip a breeding season. The reason for the smile? Those males which abstain for a year have feet which are a brighter blue and more attractive to females.

Blue-footed boobies, one of the most loved and photographed species in Galapagos, are best known for their bright blue webbed feet, which the males prominently display in their courtship dances to attract females. A study has found that while the attractiveness of the blue feet diminishes with age in males that reproduce each year, if males skip a breeding season and don't mate, they appear to display a more attractive foot colour!

A new study reported in The National Geographic News shows researchers from University of Vigo in Spain, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico studied more than a hundred male blue-footed boobies over a total of six months in 2004 and 2005 on Mexico's Isla Isabel.

To adopt a Blue footed booby for a loved one for Christmas simply click here here