Panoramas of the Galapagos

Being able to visit the Galapagos Islands was a dream come true. I have read numerous articles and watched countless nature specials about the islands and their importance to our understanding of evolution, speciation, and conservation. I am still ecstatic that I was so privileged to have an opportunity to observe the flora and fauna of these unique islands for myself.

Darwin noted, "...by far the most remarkable feature in the natural history of this archipelago...is that the different islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by a different set of beings...I never dreamed that islands, about fifty or sixty miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted (Voyage of the Beagle, 1937)." Based on quotes like these, I had always pictured a wide variety of wildlife with minimal differences in the landscape. I think the thing that I was most surprised by was the wide variety of habitats, even within a single island.

One of the first areas of observation was the harbor. After first arriving, a group of us sat outside to grab lunch and we watched as the locals as they sold the days fresh catch while a brown pelican and Galapagos sea lion hung out waiting to pick up the scraps and huge frigate birds flew overhead. This was an excellent example of how humans integrated with wildlife. A collection of colorful boats were lined up along the coast and more sea lions swum under and around them. Walking through most of the city and the hike to the Darwin Research Station, an area just inland of the coast was a good example of the Arid Zone with plenty of cactus and other hardy plants. 

Later in the trip, we hiked through the highlands, much higher above sea level, and we were literally surrounded by dense, verdant vegetation. This seemed like the Scalesia Zone where, "the trunk and branches of trees int this zone are covered with epiphytes, mostly mosses and liverworts, but also ferns (Jackson, 1993)." It was also interesting to compare this area, where there were almost no signs of human influence, to the harbor where people have made significant changes to the landscape. 

On yet another excursion, we visited the hypersaline lagoons on Isabela Island, home of the endemic Galapagos flamingos. Again, this habitat was completely different than anything we had seen on other parts of the trip (also exciting is that this photo won Project Dragonfly's photo contest in the panoramic category, and since I do not consider myself a photographer, I think this speaks volumes to the natural beauty of this habitat).
Later, after the class ended we took a trip to Las Grietas or the crack where we enjoyed snorkeling a new underwater habitat, a brackish water area that was fed by an outlet to the ocean as well as fresh streams. On the hike there we passed Salt Marshes, where locals harvest salt that is used for preserving fish, and even though this high salt area was similar to the lagoon on Isabella Island, it was still also quite distinct.

Another trek led us to the Tintoreras islets which showed us another habitat and gave us a window into what the early colonization of the Galapagos might have looked like. This area was almost entirely ah ah (fast cooling) lava. The white covering the rocks isn't just bird droppings like I initially imagined, but is actually lichen which breaks down the lava rock into soil that is suitable for other plants. Lava lizards and marine iguanas scurry over the jagged formations and a few mangroves are early colonizers.

The Littoral or Coastal Zone is the habitat along the water's edge. Unlike many areas where the plants are selected for based on climate, the plants here are characterized by their salt tolerance (Jackson, 1993). Mangroves line the coast providing soil stabilization and shelter. While we were snorkeling we watched a variety of small fish hiding in the propagules of the red mangroves and on land we saw marine iguanas hanging out in the mangrove's shade. But even the look of the coast changes from island to island and from beach to beach. On Santa Cruz we were out on the beach at sunset when we joined the Mola Mola group for their sea turtle nest surveys and this beach had light-colored sand while later a group of us traveled to Floreana Island and one of the beaches we passed had a similar light sand while the next had a dark sand that looked like it was made more from the lava rock. The beach on Santa Cruz also seemed to have more vegetation while Floreana had more lava rock along the coast.

Even in scanning over the photos I wanted to use for this post, I feel like it would be easy to assume that each of them came from a completely different location, and yet, these are all photos from my amazing Galapagos journey. Of course, nothing can compare to getting to see a Galapagos Tortoise in the wild, but I was surprised to find how many different habitats are contained on a tiny set of islands of the West coast of Ecuador and how much I enjoyed seeing the variety of landscapes. The staggering number of panoramic pictures I took seemed like a good indication that the scenic beauty of the different ecosystems was a good topic to share with others.

References
Darwin, C. (1937). Chapter XVII: Galapagos Archipelago. In the Voyage of the Beagle (pp. 376-405). New Yourk City, NY: P.F. Collier & Son Corporation.
Jackson, M. H. (1993). Galapagos, a natural history. University of Calgary press. 

by Lindsay Mayer

Lindsay's Thailand Adventures

I have so many stories from Thailand it is hard to choose only a few to share. By far my favorite time was spent hiking and sitting in the forest. My favorite picture is from a group hike. We came across a gigantic strangler fig, or a parasitic tree that grows up around a host tree growing huge vines that eventually kill off the original tree. I love to climb trees and this was the best climbing tree I have ever come across. It made me so happy to find my footings and climb up into its branches. In the photo (and in real life) am completely dwarfed by the enormousness of the tree. We also ended up taking our group shot in front of this tree. My other favorite nature time was our eco-solo. The monks took us into the woods and found a spot for each of us where we could not see or hear any other person. We sat and meditated in our spot for three hours and it was tranquil and rejuvenating. I watched as giant millipedes climbed the trees around me. Dragonflies of several colors buzzed down the stream that I was seated next to. I watched a butterfly fly over the water as well. I could have spent all day there. Amazingly, while this is the activity I was looking forward to the most, I found out this was what some of my classmates were most stressed about. The second picture is the amazing view I had if I looked upstream.

The other most interesting part of my adventure was actually after the class when I spent a few days in Bangkok on my own. Although I have traveled alone before, it has been a while since I was in a country where I could not speak the language without a friend or guide. I wanted to visit the many beautiful temples while I was there but transportation was a challenge. There were no bus schedules printed off that I could take with me so I looked at the map on the street and thought I had it figured out. I got on a bus and after communicating with one of the other passengers and pointing on a map where I was trying to get realized I was on the wrong bus. Luckily, we hadn't traveled too far so I got off and walked back to my hotel. The next time I think I was on the right bus but I did not realize that I would have to transfer buses. Slightly farther into the journey, the bus driver made everyone get off the bus but we were nowhere near my destination. I looked at the bus map and could not figure out what bus I needed to get on so again I walked, this time for well over an hour in the rain, back to my hotel. The next attempt I decided to just take a tuk-tuk but the driver said I would be better off taking a boat and he could take me to the boat landing. So the tuk-tuk driver dropped me off and drove away while I wandered to find where this boat was. I eventually found a person who pointed to the different temples on the map and told me in broken English that the boat would take me to all of these tourist destinations. Not exactly true. The boat took us down the river and deposited me and my fellow tourists on a dock with no directions. Then, a very cross Thai woman demanded that we give her money for using her dock or we couldn't leave. We also couldn't get back on the boat as it had already departed. The other boat passengers tried to argue with the woman that the boat company did not say anything about additional fees but we all ended up paying so that we could leave. One of the other passengers was from Vietnam and spoke some English so we partnered up in an attempt to find our way to the temple. Finally going in the right direction, we were stopped by another Thai person telling us the temple was closed but that he could take us on a tour and the temple would be back open by then. Thankfully, we declined his offer and the temple was not in any way closed when we got there.

One of the benefits of my roundabout adventure (besides a fun story to share) was that while I was on the boat waiting to head off for my intended destination, I witnessed two different women practicing Prayer Animal Releases, which is what I had written my paper about. People purchase animals, mostly birds, fish, and turtles so that they can release the animals to boost their karma (Chan, 2006; Gilbert, Sokha, Joyner, Thomson, & Poole, 2012). This practice causes many invasive species to be released which is a huge threat to native wildlife. The National Wildlife Federation cites that “approximately 42% of threatened or endangered species are at risk primarily due to invasive species.” Native animals are also put at risk for poaching to be sold for this practice and the animals are often kept in poor conditions which causes mortality and the spread of disease (Gilbert et al., 2012). I was astounded that a religion such as Buddhism, which has such strong ties to nature and an ethic of doing no harm, could contribute to such an ecologically harmful practice. This concept ties well into my Master Plan revolving conservation education because this is an example of a conservation topic that we generally do not address in the U.S.

• Chan, S. W. (2006). Religious release of birds in Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong.

• Gilbert, M., Sokha, C., Joyner, P. H., Thomson, R. L., & Poole, C. (2012). Characterizing the trade of wild birds for merit release in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and associated risks to health and ecology. Biological Conservation, 153, 10-16.Harris, I. (1995). Buddhist environmental ethics and detraditionalization: The case of EcoBuddhism. Religion, 25(3), 199-211.

• National Wildlife Federation. Invasive Species. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2017, from https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Invasive-Species.aspx

An Unbelizable Trip

Belize was amazing! I was not ready for the trip to end; I could definitely have used a few more days on Tobacco Caye and I wish I had more time to spend at the Belize Zoo. Those were actually the two things that made the biggest impact on me during this trip.

I have snorkeled/dove in the Florida Keys, Bahamas, and Cayman Islands, but Belize had the most pristine reefs and amazing biodiversity by far. There were soooooo many different species of fish, not to mention all the different types of coral, Christmas tree worms, sea urchins, and other invertebrates. I was simply in awe of how beautiful it was swimming under the waves in tropical, turquoise water. I was so utterly happy snorkeling every day; it makes me wish I were a mermaid. It also makes me really sad to think about how most of the world's reefs are so damaged and polluted that they won't recover in my lifetime, if ever.


The Belize Zoo was wonderful. I could have spend many more hours there just enjoying the animals and the ambiance. What really stood out to me the most was how differently the Belize Zoo approaches animal encounters than what I am used to in zoos in the United States. It is undeniable that having close encounters with animals has a life changing impact (Curtin, 2009). I feel like in the states, the animal encounters are very controlled, probably mostly determined by legal liabilities. At the zoo I work at, even the keepers are not allowed to enter the exhibit with the tapirs (they use protected contact, so there is always a barrier between them and the animal for safety) and in Belize guests can go in with the tapir. I would never let a guest touch one of the owls that I work with, and when I was at the Florida Wildlife Hospital the permit we had our education animals under required that the public be 5 feet away. In Belize, an entire classroom when up and touched a barn owl's face. And there was a jaguar encounter where a JAGUAR WOULD LICK YOUR FOREHEAD! What?!? I was completely blown away by the animal encounters there.


It seems like the difference is in the states people do not have a healthy respect or fear of wild animals so part of our job as educators is to tell people to keep their distance for their safely as well as the animals. In Belize, people are already terrified of the animals, due to the myths and superstitions pertaining to them, to the point where they kill the animals on sight, so it is necessary to foster a close connection and take away the fear of the animal in order to protect the animals. It was very interesting to see how how the connection between people and wildlife can differ in other parts of the world.

The other most un-belize-able part of my trip was my classmates. There could not have been a better group of people. Miss you all!  - Lindsay

Curtin, S. (2009). Wildlife tourism: the intangible, psychological benefits of human–wildlife encounters. Current Issues in Tourism, 12(5-6), 451-474.

Jungle Adventure

Devin and I wanted to go somewhere fun without having to drive too far so we decided to go to Jungle Adventures. They have lots of different animals, wildlife shows, and a boat ride. Most of the animals were native but there were others that were there because they had been confiscated because of abuse or neglect. We saw African Spurred Tortoises, Florida Panthers, Red Foxes, and lots of American Alligators. Safari Todd did our educational animal show, alligator feeding, and boat ride and he was amazing. He knew tons about all of he animals, has a great sense of humor, and he's worked on a lot of news educational shows like Bill Nye and Discovery Channel. During the hands on animals show we got to hold a juvenile alligator, snake, and tarantula. That was the first time I have ever held a tarantula.

Lion Country Safari

Devin and I had been planning on going to Busch Gardens or Disney today, but yesterday I got three fire ant stings on my ankle, and walking around all day is definitely not an option since my ankle is swollen, painful, and itchy. We decided to head to Lion Country Safari instead because you drive through the park instead of walk. I have never been there and Devin hasn't been there in years. They gave us a CD to play while we drove through the park that narrated what kind of animals were in each habitat and told us a little bit about the animals. I really enjoyed it; we got to get really close to some zebra, rhinos, and a couple of wildebeest had a chase right past our car. We drove through the park twice and on the second pass the chimpanzees were out and were running around, chasing each other, climbing up and down their forts, and making all kinds of vocalizations. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera (seems like I'm doing that a lot lately) so the only pictures I captured were with my iPhone. I really wish I had had my good camera on me. After driving though the park twice we walked around Safari World Amusement Park (part of Lion Country Safari admission). I couldn't do much walking but we did get to see some birds, alligators, flamingos, monkeys, and giraffes.  We watched the alligators get fed quartered pieces of chicken. We also got free tickets for animal food because we donated our old cell phones so Devin and I each fed the giraffes. We stayed for part of the talk on giraffes where I learned that part of their tongue is purple and the pigment helps protect it from the sun because they can spend up to 20 hours a day with their tongues out grazing on leaves. We also got to watch one of the trainers working with one of the giraffes, giving them hand signals to touch a frisbee on the fence, pick their nose with their tongue, bend down, and some other commands. After the park Devin took me to a Thai restaurant that he had been to before. It had very eclectic decor and the food was amazing. I had a very yummy pad thai.  Then we headed back on the 2 hour drive to get back home.

Just keep swimming

My parents came to visit me for the "weekend" and took me to Key Largo. Their flight arrived Tuesday night and we started driving down Wednesday morning after a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy (vegetarian style) that Devin made us. Amazingly enough, I managed to stay awake and not get car sick the entire drive down (I did take some Dramamine). We got settled into our hotel room at the Holiday Inn and then we wandered around the harbor and looked at the African Queen (boat featured in the movie The African Queen with Humprey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn). We also booked a sunset snorkel trip on a sailboat for after dinner, visited the dive shop next to the hotel, and had dinner at Coconuts. They had a very yummy key lime pie that reminded me a little bit of Devin's tequila key lime cheesecake that he made for my birthday. After dinner we left for our snorkel trip. On they boat they went through all the safety instructions (don't get lost or drown) and we had to wear safety vests on the snorkel trip which was kind of a bummer but luckily they weren't too buoyant. I saw two Southern stingrays, queen angelfish. gray angelfish, stoplight parrotfish and lots of other reef fish. There was also beautiful fan coral, brain coral, and tons of other corals. I love being in the ocean. There is just so much diversity and it is so beautiful how it all interacts with each other.

It's a nice day for a blue wedding

Liz and Justin got married today! Yay! It was a beautiful wedding at the Yellow Dog Cafe. Devin and I were standing on the stairs by the deck for the ceremony. Liz looked absolutely stunning as she walked down the aisle in her blue wedding dress. It almost makes me wish I had a colorful wedding dress. We were standing pretty close so we could hear everything Julie said for the ceremony. I really liked at the end where she yelled the part about pronouncing them husband and wife. Devin and I sat at the Lion Fish table (Liz and Justin met on Plenty of Fish so they had fish themed tables, so cute) with Natasha and Julie. The table centerpieces were also really pretty, she had empty wine bottles with blue flowers wrapped in blue ribbon. They had probably the best wedding food I have ever had. I had a delicious portabella mushroom and Devin had onion encrusted chicken. I stole some of his onions and mashed potatoes. At the end of the night we blew bubbles at Liz and Justin as they exited the restaurant.