The Day for Research (El Dia De Investigación)

Hola mis estudiantes!

The morning view from our back porch.

Today is the day for research (el dia de investigación) - finally! Currently, our ability to do science and conduct our research has been severely hindered by the park service. We have met many great and helpful people here, but our scientific work thus far in the Galapagos has been thick with red tape. As I sit here watching a gecko scurry around on our cereal box, as well as several baby ants exploring my computer screen, I’m constantly reminded of how lucky we are to be here, despite the many setbacks we’ve experienced. There is no doubt that the park service means well, but they do not share the same feeling of urgency held by our team. As any well-meaning park service does, they have the best interests of the wildlife and land at heart. But it seems that it may be challenging to also balance the idea that our research could provide broader impact-based information that could be used to better monitor and protect the wildlife on these islands. To put it into perspective, we have been here since Tuesday, and will just be starting our research as of today. A strong lesson here for us all is that science (or anything in life) can be very frustrating and ridden with roadblocks and hurdles. As long as we continue to work steadily towards our goals (as our team continues to do here) the likelihood for success and achieving what we set out to do will remain high.

Small Ground Finch on our porch
(Geospiza fuliginosa)

However! Due to our lack of research involvement thus far, we have had time to explore and adventure into much of what the Galapagos has to offer. I want to share a few spectacular examples with you all.

Galapagos Gecko on our porch
(Phyllodactylus spp.)

Two nights ago, while falling asleep to the ocean breeze and the crashing surf, we heard a strange chirping sound outside our window. Thinking nothing of it, we fell asleep, woke up to our ocean view and morning breakfast partner (this Small Ground Finch, Geospiza fuliginosa, another endemic species to the islands), continued through our day, and before we knew it we were ready for bed once more. During our stay here, we have noticed that the life that roams at night is quite different than what we see during the day. Thinking of your own backyard, you may be able to easily relate to this. When the lights go out here on the islands, instead of roaming marine iguanas, soaring and fluttering birds, and noisy sea lions, we start to see wandering geckos, creeping and elegant spiders, and twittering insect life. On this particular night while exploring our back porch, I heard a strange chirping coming from the wall. We grabbed the flashlight, and as we shined it against the stucco, four small geckos scattered about the walls. However, there seemed to be more to it…they weren’t just scurrying away from the light, but were instead being chased away by one particularly gecko, one who may have been defending his territory. These geckos (Phyllodactylus spp.) were chirping while chasing after each other, getting seemingly more aggressive as they scurried about. This seemingly calm, cozy back porch was really quite a bit more for these geckos, as each lizard seemed to be vying for a position on this wall. I’ll make sure to keep my eyes and ears open as best I can for the rest of the trip after this!

Mating Pacific Green Sea Turtles in Tortuga Bay
(Chelonia mydas)

You may be thinking to yourself…Mr. K., this looks like an underwater picture of a mating pair of wild Pacific Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas) taken by your bride-to-be; if you were indeed thinking this, you couldn’t be more correct. While snorkeling in Tortuga Bay (Turtle Bay) on the island of Santa Cruz, two members of our research team happened upon this fearless couple mating amongst a pristine cove no deeper than six feet. Turtles (particularly sea turtles) are incredible, docile, yet very threatened animals with a body plan that has remained virtually unchanged for at least 200 million years. Females sea turtles will lay their eggs on sandy beaches, and both males and females spend the majority of their time (if not all of it) in the open ocean. We had the great opportunity to swim with this pair for almost 20 minutes, being ever vigilant not to disturb them.

Students – science is all about relationships, and more-so, understanding these relationships. When we start to think of our earth as a collection of micro and macro systems - animals, plants, chemicals, reactions, geology, geography, and much, much more – we start to think like scientists.  Trying to understand these relationships is important not only for conservation, but for improving our own personal growth trends and understanding of where we fit into these earth systems.

Since our research will focus on the impacts of tourism on populations of marine iguanas, begin thinking of questions about which you may be curious; begin to think about potential causes and effects of sharing parts of the Galapagos with the entire world. What happens when people come to these shores? How do they get here? Are there any costs? Are there any benefits? It’s time we start to think like scientists. I hope you all have a great weekend and I look forward to reading your posts and comments!