World Trivia | 40 facts about the Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands is a famous place in the world for the wildlife, and this is why these Islands are considered as a naturalist’s heaven on planet Earth.

In the following article we are about to learn more about the Galapagos Islands, their natural life, their history and so much more…

1. The Galápagos Islands are part of the Republic of Ecuador.
2. They are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed on either side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere.
3. The Galapagos Islands are located 906 km (563 mi) west of continental Ecuador.
4. They are known for their large number of endemic species that were studied by Charles Darwin during the second voyage of HMS Beagle.
5. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin’s theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
6. The Galápagos Islands and their surrounding waters form the Galápagos Province of Ecuador, the Galápagos National Park, and the Galápagos Marine Reserve.
7. The principal language on the islands is Spanish.
8. The islands have a population of slightly over 25,000.
9. The first recorded visit to the islands happened by chance in 1535.
10. It was then that Fray Tomás de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panamá, was surprised with this undiscovered land during a voyage to Peru to arbitrate in a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro.
11. De Berlanga eventually returned to the Spanish Empire and described the conditions of the islands and the animals that inhabited them.
12. The group of islands was shown and named “Insulae de los Galopegos” (Islands of the Tortoises) in Abraham Ortelius’s atlas published in 1570.
13. The first crude map of the islands was made in 1684 by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley, who named the individual islands after some of his fellow pirates or after British royalty and noblemen.
14. These names were used in the authoritative navigation charts of the islands prepared during the Beagle survey under captain Robert FitzRoy.
15. They were also used in Darwin’s popular book The Voyage of the Beagle.
16. The newly independent Republic of Ecuador took the islands from Spanish ownership in 1832, and subsequently gave them official Spanish names.
17. The older names remained in use in English-language publications, including Herman Melville’s The Encantadas of 1854.
18. Administratively, Galapagos constitutes one of the provinces of Ecuador, made up of three cantons.
19. They bear the names of its most populated islands, namely: San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz and Isabela.
20. They have more than 400 species of fish.
21. 97% of the islands’ land mass have been declared a national park.
22. About the surrounding waters, they have been named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
23. Both the park and the marine reserve are protected by Ecuador.
24. Also, they are largely uninhabited.
25. The Galapagos National Park charges an entrance fee from all visitors to the islands (currently USD 100).
26. The remaining 3% of land areas, outside of the national park, are home to the population that lives there.
27. There have been several volcanic eruptions in the islands over the last 100 years, so the volcanos are considered active.
28. The most recent being that of the Sierra Negra volcano on the island of Isabela in 2018.
29. This eruption raised concerns about the endemic species of pink iguanas found there.
30. Fortunately, their habitat on the northwest side of the island appears to have been unaffected.
31. The volcanic eruptions are in general an important part of island formation.
32. The Galapagos Islands are comprised of a total of 19 islands and dozens of islets. H
33. Due to continuous volcanic activity, though, the Galapagos Islands are in a constant state of change with new formations emerging or sinking, meaning new islands may very well be forming all the time.
34. The islands’ climate is unique thanks to the intersection of various marine and air currents.
35. A piece of the archipelago (along the northern coast of Isabela) happens to be the only place in the Northern Hemisphere where you can see penguins in their natural habitat.
36. The Galapagos penguin is the second smallest species of its kind and is typically observed on the western islands of Isabela and Fernandina.
37. Some colonies can be found within the central islands and as far south as Floreana.
38. In general, there are two markedly different seasons: a hot season, which sees warmer, humid weather from December through May, and a dry season, which is slightly cooler and extends from June through November.
39. The average Galapagos giant tortoise can live for well over a century.
40. Their longevity is the highest of any vertebrate on land. Seeing them in the wild is truly something unique.