Wildlife
BirdLife International (2011) Endemic Bird Area factsheet: Galpagos Islands. Click here for more information, by bird species.
Truly Unique Species
Galapagos is home to the only penguin in the northern hemisphere, the only ocean-going lizard and plants that reproduce without pollination.
Internationally-recoginzed In 1959 the Galapagos became Ecuador’s first national park, and in 1978 the area was declared a World Heritage Site. In 1984, the archipelago was added to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program.
Indigenous Wildlife
The Galapagos Islands are home to nearly 9,000 species, most found nowhere else in the world, including the only penguin in the northern hemisphere, the only ocean-going lizard and plants that reproduce without pollination.
Although many of the thousands of animals found here resemble their mainland ancestors, they have evolved so extensively in isolation that they are now classed as distinct species. Over three-fourths of the reptiles and land birds are endemic (meaning they exist nowhere else) and often exclusive to certain islands.
Imagine a place where hundreds of iguanas lay on rocks in the sun, sea lions slumber on the beach, birds nest on the ground and giant tortoises bathe in muddy pools. In the Galapagos Islands, this is not a stretch of the imagination, however, all of these animals are threatened by the thousands of street dogs and cats living in Galapagos.
