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Marine iguana
A marine iguana grazes on algae in the sea, then comes back onto rock to warm up. Its flattened tail helps propel it through the water. Think of it first as a shoreline grazer, even if the dark animals resting together on the lava are what catch your eye.
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Galapagos penguin
A penguin can live here near the equator because cold, food-rich water reaches the islands. Much of the population lives around Fernandina and the western shores of Isabela. Follow the currents as well as the latitude to understand how the islands can support this bird.
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Flightless cormorant
The wings are too small for flight, and the bird’s webbed feet do the work of pushing it through the water. Look at the proportions of a cormorant resting on rock and the trade-off is easy to see. The species lives on the coasts of Fernandina and western Isabela.
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Hood Island giant tortoise
Española’s tortoise can stretch its long neck up through the lifted front of its saddle-shaped shell. That shape is useful on a dry island where food includes cactus. The island’s restoration program raised descendants of 15 surviving tortoises and put them back on their original island.
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Galápagos land iguana
A yellowish head and a heavy, spike-backed body help distinguish this land iguana from the dark marine iguanas. Cactus is an important food in the dry lowlands. You can read the difference between the two reptiles in where they feed, even when both are resting on similar dark rock.
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Conolophus pallidus
The Santa Fe land iguana is generally paler than the other yellow land iguana and has a prominent row of spines. The island is its native home. Even among Galápagos reptiles, this is a case where the island you’re looking at helps you identify the species.
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Conolophus marthae
The pink land iguana has dark markings over pink skin. Its known native range is part of a single volcano on Isabela. That tiny range helps explain why it is possible to talk about this animal’s entire habitat on a map of just one island.
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Microlophus albemarlensis
The Isabela lava lizard lives on Isabela, Fernandina, and nearby islets. A male may rise and dip on its front legs in a territorial display. Closely related lava lizards live on other islands, so the island where you saw one can be a better clue than its color.
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Floreana mockingbird
The name recalls the main island where Darwin saw this mockingbird. Its surviving populations persisted on two small offshore islets, Champion and Gardner-by-Floreana, after it disappeared from Floreana itself. That history makes the linked names on a map important to understanding this bird.
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Galápagos dove
A bright blue ring around the eye stands out against this dove’s brown feathers. The red feet are another clue if you see it walking on the ground. The combination is a good reminder to look past the overall color on a bird with markings this small and sharp.
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Galapagos hawk
Adult Galápagos hawks are dark brown, while young birds are paler and more mottled. Seeing a lighter bird needn’t mean you’ve found another kind of hawk. The different plumages are especially useful to know for a raptor native only to this archipelago.
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Galapagos crake
This small rail lives in dense ground cover, so a call can be easier to detect than the bird itself. It was recorded on Floreana again after a long absence from local records. Galápagos rail is another name for the same bird.
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Woodpecker finch
A woodpecker finch sometimes uses a twig or cactus spine to reach an insect in a crevice. Watch what the bird holds in its beak to tell this behavior from ordinary probing. It is one way these closely related island finches have found different food sources.
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Vampire ground finch
This sharp-billed finch is native to the northern islands of Darwin and Wolf. It has been observed feeding on blood from seabirds as well as taking other foods. Pair that unusual habit with its very limited range, which distinguishes it from ground finches on the central islands.
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Mangrove finch
Some Darwin’s finches use dry ground or the forest canopy. The mangrove finch is tied to coastal mangrove habitat, with its surviving range concentrated on Isabela. Its home is the quickest clue to why a bird that looks like several other small finches has such a different conservation story.
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Xylocopa darwini
A female Galápagos carpenter bee has a shiny black abdomen and excavates a nest in dead wood. On Santa Cruz, researchers have recorded the bee visiting a wide range of flowering plants. It’s a smaller example of island endemism than the famous reptiles.
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