The most famous visitor to the Galapagos Islands was Charles Darwin, who visited there in 1835. He was the geologist on board H.M.S. Beagle, a ship commanded by Captain Robert Fitzroy, whose mission was to map the coasts of South America for the Royal Navy. On their five-year journey they visited places like Tenerife, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, the Galapagos Islands, Chile, Uruguay, and Cape Verde Island. Darwin collected animals, plants and fossils, and studied the geology of the countries he visited.

THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

Charles Darwin arrived in the Galapagos Islands on the 15th September 1835, and the first place he visited was San Cristobal island. There he found many different animals and plants, including marine iguanas, giant tortoises and the Galapagos hawk. On the 24th September, the Beagle moved on to Floreana where the English Governor of the islands, Nicholas Lawson, claimed he could tell which island a tortoise came from because each had a different shaped shell.

H.M.S. Beagle spent five weeks in the Galapagos Islands, also visiting Isabela Island (where they first saw land iguanas), Santiago and Pinta islands.

When Charles Darwin returned to England in 1836, he used what he had seen on his voyage on H.M.S. Beagle to develop his theory of evolution, where he believed that species change over a long period of time (evolve) to suit their environment.

Charles Darwin's home, Down House, was opened to the public as a museum in 1998, and is now looked after by English Heritage.

CHARLES DARWIN AND EVOLUTION

Before Charles Darwin wrote about how he thought life on Earth evolved, most people believed that humans, and plants and animals had not changed since life began on this planet. When Darwin visited Galapagos, he found that many birds, animals, plants and reptiles had developed differently from the same ancestors. Over millions of years they have slowly adapted to the different environments around them by the process called evolution.

EVOLUTION

There are thirteen species of Darwin's finch, a small sparrow-like bird, in the Galapagos Islands. Each species has adapted - or evolved - depending on the type of food that it feeds on. This is shown by the different beak shapes.

For example, the large ground finch has developed a broad, wide beak, for cracking hard seeds. The cactus ground finch has a long, downcurved beak, for reaching down into the cactus flowers upon which it feeds. Other types of finch feed on insects, some remove ticks from tortoises, and one even pecks at seabirds and feeds on their blood! Each finch species has evolved according to its particular food source.

Charles Darwin wrote in his notes about how very tame the birds and animals were that lived in the Galapagos Islands. This was because they had not learned to be scared of humans - why? - the first humans did not find Galapagos until 1535, and they had never seen us before!

..Top