Galapagos

An ark in the South Pacific

Endemic Fauna

On our tour into this amazing oasis we find a vast variety of unique species that evolved together with the Islands: blue-footed boobies, red-footed boobies, blue herons, flamingos, penguins, land and sea iguanas, giant tortoises, frigatebirds, albatrosses, cormorants, sea lions, sharks and countless other endemic species typical of the archipelago. The Galapagos Islands are made up of diverse and complex ecosystems that allow us to understand and study biological, geological and evolutionary processes.

Galapagos is a well-preserved destination due to the existing conditions of endemism (82% of mammals, 80% of land birds, 26% of seabirds and 95% of reptiles are endemic to the islands). The Galapagos fauna has its ancestors on the continent and had an evolutionary process of approximately 4 million years.

We conserve

Galapagos for humanity

  • Galapagos is a unique place on the planet, this great diversity was due to a natural phenomenon that allowed the formation of beautiful and unique landscapes, its privileged geographic location allows the development of endemic species in well-preserved ecosystems.

  • The first conservation efforts for Galapagos by the Ecuadorian government occurred between 1934 and 1936, when the islands of Santiago, Española, Rábida, Genovesa, Marchena, Pinta, Wolf, Darwin, Santa Cruz, Isabela, Seymour and Daphne were declared as fauna and flora reserves, in this declaration the hunting and capture of certain species of the islands is prohibited. Due to the global biological and ecological importance of the archipelago, the first protection laws were enacted with the declaration of the Archipelago as a National Park in 1959 and later, as sites of global natural importance.

  • 97% of the land surface of the Galapagos archipelago is part of the National Park, which is made up of 7 major islands, 14 minor islands, 12 additional islands, 64 islets and 136 rocks, all of volcanic origin.