Explore the Galapagos Islands with Google Maps and watch some 360 degree Street View. Video.
In partnership with the Directorate of the Galapagos National Park, The Charles Darwin Foundation, and Catlin Seaview Survey, we traveled to the archipelago to collect 360-degree Street View imagery. Scroll down all the way on this page to watch the 360 degree view and also just put on your mouse arrow on every picture of the Galapagos sea animals and they will have some motion.
Galapagos Islands will have the world`s first ecological airport terminal with LEED Gold certification, tomorrow.
With the use of solar energy, water reuse and harnessing the winds, among other environmental innovations in technology supported, Ecuador's Galapagos Islands tomorrow will become the first in the world where there is a green airport terminal.
This was stated by Ezequiel Barrenechea, president of Ecological Airport in Galapagos and Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of America Corporation, which holds the concession of the archipelago airfield for fifteen years.
After a year of construction, the airport terminal will be operational tomorrow , but the finishes have not been finalized, as will be made "with the stone and wood that is removed from the old terminal, to thereby avoid waste and to reuse maximum existing material, "he said.
The building, which will be used by 800 to 1,000 passengers per day, will officially open the first week of next February, while August is expected to be ready for the track and platform.
In the construction of the airport, which takes into account the surrounding environment and are looking for a low impact on the ecosystem, will cost $ 24 million, according to Barrenechea.
"It is the first and only, for now, truly green and LEED Gold" he said, referring to the certification system for sustainable buildings developed by the Green Building Council of America.
They decided to build it in the Galapagos, about 1,000 kilometers from the mainland coasts of Ecuador, "because it is the best place to set an example that we can and must build sustainably.'s Natural Heritage of Humanity and icon regarding care of nature is concerned, "he said.
The builders say that green building aims to achieve greater environmental quality with minimal energy dependence, based on the implementation of bioclimatic strategies of natural conditioning and the use of renewable energies.
For example, the new terminal, daytime use only, has light colors on certain walls in search of light and large windows to let in natural light and help further the natural ventilation of the enclosure.
In the few areas where the natural breeze is not possible, use air ducts are buried, with forced ventilation.
The new building is located in the direction of the prevailing winds to get "full" breeze, that allows to lower the average temperature without air conditioning use and allows greater control regulate the amount of sunlight.
Also, the new location of the terminal ensures that gas and parked aircraft moving from entering the building and reduces the noise heard by passengers.
The airport is on the island of Baltra, which has no fresh water sources and where rainwater is limited.
A desalination plant will supply water to the terminal, where it is used in washing, while the recycled toilets.
In addition, a photovoltaic system supplies 13% of the total energy demand of the system and seeks to rise to 25%.
The Galapagos Islands is named after the large turtles that inhabit it and is, since 1978, Natural Heritage of Humanity designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).
Diego is a Galapagos tortoise who came to the San Diego Zoo in the 1930s and was sent back to the Galapagos Islands in the 1970s to be part of their breeding program. Since then, Diego has fathered over 1,000 offspring, thus earning the nickname "Super Diego."
Meet Diego New King of the Galapagos Islands Chelonoidis hoodensis species giant turtle.
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Lonesome George's
inability to reproduce made him a global symbol of efforts to halt the
disappearance of species. And while his kind died with him, that doesn't
mean the famed giant tortoise leaves no heir apparent.
The Galapagos Islands have another centenarian who fills a shell pretty well. He's Diego, a prolific, bossy, macho reptile.
Unlike Lonesome George, who died June 24, Diego symbolizes not a dying breed but one resurrected.
Having
sired hundreds of offspring, Diego has been central to bringing the
Espanola Island type of tortoise back from near extinction, rangers at
Galapagos National Park say.
Diego was plucked from Espanola by expeditioners sometime between 1900 and 1930 and wound up in the San Diego Zoo in California, said the head of the park's conservation program, Washington Tapia.
When
the U.S. zoo returned him to the Galapagos in 1975, the only other
known living members of his species were two males and 12 females.
Chelonoidis
hoodensis — some consider it species, some a subspecies — had been all
but destroyed, mostly by domestic animals introduced by humans that ate
their eggs.
So Diego and the
others were placed in a corral at the park's breeding center on Santa
Cruz, the main island in the isolated archipelago whose unique flora and
fauna helped inspire Charles Darwin's work on evolution.
Diego
was so dominant and aggressive, bullying other males with bites and
shoves, that he had to be moved eight years later to his own pen, with
five of the females. The reptiles are not monogamous.
"Diego is
very territorial, including with humans," said his keeper, Fausto
Llerena. "He once bit me, and two weeks ago he tried (again) to bite me.
When you enter his pen, Diego comes near and his intentions aren't
friendly."
A U.S.-based herpetologist for the Galapagos
Conservancy, Linda Cayot, says Diego is the most sexually active of the
bunch because he's the biggest and the oldest of the males.
"In tortoises, the biggest dominates. It's not that the others aren't active. It's just that he's dominant," she says.
Tapia
said it is impossible to know Diego's age, but he is well over 100. He
estimates Diego is the father of 40 to 45 percent of the 1,781 tortoises
born in the breeding program and placed on Espanola island.
At
least 14 species of giant tortoise originally inhabited the islands 620
miles (1,000 kilometers) off Ecuador's Pacific coast and 10 survive,
their features developing in sync with their environment, as Darwin
observed.
Espanola, which encompasses 50 square miles (130 square
kilometers), is arid, and in order to reach vegetation high off the
ground, the tortoises there developed the longest legs and necks of any
other species in the archipelago.
Diego is nearly 3 feet (90 centimeters) long, weighs 176 pounds (80 kilograms), and has a black saddleback shell.
Llerena says tourists take to him automatically, if from a safe distance.
"I think he's going to be the successor to Lonesome George, the new favorite."
A
visit to Lonesome George became de rigueur for celebrities and common
folk alike among the 180,000 people who annually visit the Galapagos.
Among his last visitors were Richard Gere, Prince Charles of England and
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and family.
Before humans arrived in
the Galapagos, the six islands were home to tens of thousands of giant
tortoises.
Numbers were down to about 3,000 in 1974, but the recovery
program run by the national park and the Charles Darwin Foundation has
succeeded in increasing the overall population to 20,000.
The
offspring of Diego and his male rivals in the corrals of Santa Cruz have
themselves been reproducing in the wild on Espanola island since 1990.
"We can now say that the reproduction of this species is guaranteed," said Tapia.
Cayot
was asked whether having so many children of the same few parents
interbreeding on Espanola could hurt the breed's long-term prospects.
"It could be a problem," she said. "But it is more important to save the species."
Lonesome George the last of the Galapagos Geochelone abigdoni species died.
Sad day in our Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Lonesome George the last Galapagos Geochelone abigdoni species died at 100 years old.
He lived in La Pinta Island part of the group of islands which make the Galapagos Islands.
The Galapagos National Park director, Edwin Naula, reported that the turtle morning dead in his yard. His caretaker, Fausto Llerena, found him still warm, but lifeless.
So far, performed the analysis of the remains of Lonesome George, so named because there was no copy of his subspecies. We attempted to mate with the islands of Isabela tortoises, they even lay eggs.
However, the eggs were not viable and there were no descendants of George, whose age was estimated on 100. Naula estimated that the death was due to a stoppage of the heart, typical of the turtle and would have completed its life cycle. However, wait until the results of the autopsy to officially determine what caused the death. Naula reports that, until Saturday night, George was in good condition.
George failed to find in 35 years that a female mate, and his last hopes rested on some miracle of science, which did not occur. Even a multinational team led by researchers at Yale University identified a tortoise that had half of their genes in common with George, as reported in the journal Current Biology. The researchers expected that new genetic tests could find a genetically pure Pinta tortoise among the 2 000 who live in Isabela, and thus begin a breeding program with Lonesome George.
There was no success in these efforts to perpetuate the descendants of George, who was part of Guiness book as planet's unique animal. He refused to mate with females of other subspecies, and when at last he succeeded, the eggs were not fertile. George was six feet long and weighed 88 kilos. It was the last pure specimen of the species Geochelone abingdoni. Four of the 14 species of giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, which helped Charles Darwin develop his theory of natural selection have become extinct in recent decades because of hunting and competition for food that suffered by hundreds of goats introduced there in the early 50's.
The Lonesome George was found on Pinta island in 1972, when it was believed that the species of turtles on this island was totally extinct. Since then the turtle has been part of captive breeding program of the Galapagos National Park Service. Edwin Naula, director of Galapagos National Park, said that by July this year, has planned an international workshop to develop the management strategy of turtle populations in the next ten years in order to achieve restoration. "The workshop will be held in honor of Lonesome George".
