The Galapagos Islands 03....

Most of the animals and birds found here are endemic to the Galapagos Islands - they can be found nowhere else on earth. Those that can be found elsewhere are often a different subspecies to those found in the Galapagos. For instance, the sealions here are a seperate subspecies known as 'Galapagos Sealions'; the penguins are 'Galapagos Penguins' etc. Incidentally, the Galapagos Penguin is the world's only tropical penguin. Every other species of penguin lives in the Antarctic or thereabouts, except the Galapagos Penguin which lives on the tropical beaches of the Galapagos Islands on the equator!

One of the most recognisable species associated with the Galapagos Islands is the Blue-footed Booby. These guys are reputedly the world's greatest diving birds reaching speeds and depths unmatched by any other bird.



There are two other kinds of Booby - well three, but I'm just talking seabirds here! The other two are the Nasca Booby and the Red-footed Booby. This photo is of a Nasca Booby, taken on Espanola Island on Day 2.



And here are those equatorial Galapagos Penguins I mentioned a minute ago living alongside the Blue-footed Booby.



There are also flamingoes, sorry 'Galapagos Flamingoes' as they are again a different subspecies! There are only about 500 flamingoes in the Galapagos Islands so they aren't very numerous but it's amazing that they actually live here at all. Flamingoes generally live within large colonies in shallow water but such conditions don't exist in the Galapagos. Instead they exist in small groups around coastal lagoons (not far from the beach-loving penguins!)

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