The
Galapagos Islands have a colorful history that includes pirates, whalers,
sealers and even love and mystery (check out the history of Floreana,
and read Floreana by Margaret Wittmer)! As most great things
in the world, the discovery of the archipelago was accidental when Tomas
de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama, was sailing from Panama to Peru.
After reporting great tortoises that looked like saddles, "galapagos,"
to King Charles V of Spain, the islands were named.
In
the 18th and 19th centuries, the industrial revolution changed from
the need for Spanish gold to oil which came from whale's blubber. 100
years of exploiting the waters, as well as the land, bringing not only
tortoises and whales, but also fur seals near extinction, followed.
Today, when visiting the islands, you will note how fur seals hesitate
to join the crowds like the other animals -- they evolved and learned
fear.
Probably
the most famous visitor to the islands was Charles Darwin.
1835
The Beagle visited the Galapagos Islands. Charles Darwin studied the
flora and fauna. He concluded that the species, to survive, would gradually
alter based on environmental conditions. In 1859, after 20 years of
his life gathering supporting evidence, Darwin published The Origin
of the Species by Natural Selection.
Ecuador claimed the Galapagos in 1832 with the United States and Great Britain vying for the islands the next 100 years. Surprisingly, though, it wasn't until 1959 the islands became a National Park and tourism began in the 1960s.
the Islands were declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO emphasizing
its universal value for mankind.
Now, an estimated 70,000 people
visit the islands each year.
When I
see these Islands in sight of each other and possessed of but a scanty
stock of animals, tenanted by these birds, but slightly differing in
structure and filling the same place in Nature, I must suspect they
are varieties . . . If there is the slightest foundation for these remarks
the zoology of the archipelagoes will be well worth examining: for such
facts would undermine the stability of species'. -- Darwin
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