Galápagos Islands facts for kids

The Galápagos Islands are near Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean

The Galápagos Islands are near Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean

View from Bartolomé Island, Galápagos Islands

Darwin's Arch at Darwin Island in the Galapagos.

Marine iguana.

Grapsus grapsus, Galapagos.

The Galápagos land iguana basking on a rock

Blue-footed booby.

Waved albatrosses' famous courtship ritual

Sea lions in the Galápagos are somewhat tame, and very curious.

Fresh Water Swimming in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos on the Island of Santa Cruz.

Galápagos tortoise on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos

Puerto Ayora at night on the Island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.

The Galápagos Islands (Archipiélago de Colón in Spanish) are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean which now belong to Ecuador. The islands are famous for having many native animals, including giant tortoises, that are found nowhere else on Earth. These animals helped Charles Darwin towards his theory of evolution by natural selection after he visited the islands in 1835.

97% of the islands are a national park, all except the inhabited parts. The Galápagos National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1978), a marine reserve (1980), and a biosphere reserve (1986).

Place

The Galápagos Islands are on the equator, 973 km (604 miles) from Ecuador in South America. There are 19 islands with a total of 8,010 square km (3,093 sq. miles) of land. The islands were made from volcanoes, and volcanoes are still making the islands of Isabela and Fernandina today. The most recent volcanic eruption was Cerro Azul in May 2008 on Isabela Island.

People

In 2001, about 18,000 people lived in the Galápagos Islands. Most people have come from mainland Ecuador to live in the islands within recent years (about 3500 people lived on the islands in 1972). Most people are from the Mestizo ethnic group, which are the descendants of Spanish and Native American peoples.

People live on only 5 of the 19 islands of the Galápagos: Baltra, Floreana, Isabela, San Cristobal and Santa Cruz. Puerto Ayora is the biggest town, where about 10,000 people live. Puerto Ayora is on Santa Cruz Island. The second biggest town is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal with about 5,600 people. Puerto Villamil is the town of Isabela Island, where about 2,000 people live. There are approximately 30,000 people living in the Galapagos as of 2012.

Tourism has steadily grown over the last two decades; in 2012 it is estimated that 200,000 tourists will visit the Galápagos Islands.

Galápagos Province

The islands are one of the 24 provinces of Ecuador. The capital of the province is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, a town with 5,600 people.

There are three cantons in the province. Each canton has a seat, which is a town like a capital. All of the islands of the province are in one of the three cantons.

Related pages

• List of World Heritage Sites in Ecuador

Noteworthy species

Noteworthy species include:

• Iguanas
  • Galápagos land iguanas, Conolophus spp.
  • Marine iguana, Amblyrhynchus cristatus, the only iguana that feeds in the sea
• Chelonia
  • Galápagos tortoise (Galápagos giant tortoise), Geochelone elephantopus, known as galápago in Spanish, it gave the name to the islands
  • Galápagos green turtle, Chelonia mydas agassisi, a subspecies of the green turtle
• Birds
  • Flightless cormorant, Phalacrocorax harrisi
  • Great frigatebird and magnificent frigatebird
  • Blue-footed booby, Sula nebouxii, popular among visitors for their large blue feet which they show off in courtship
  • Galápagos penguin, Spheniscus mendiculus, the only living tropical penguin
  • Waved albatross, Phoebastria irrorata, the only living tropical albatross
  • Galápagos hawk, Buteo galapagoensis, the islands' main scavenger and "environmental police"
  • Four endemic species of Galápagos mockingbirs, Nesomimus, the first species Darwin noticed to vary from island to island
  • Thirteen endemic species of tanagers, popularly called Darwin's finches. Among them is the Sharp-beaked ground finch Geospiza difficilis septentrionalis which is sometimes called the "vampire finch" for its blood-sucking habits, and the tool-using woodpecker finch, Camarhynchus pallidus
• Mammals
  • Galápagos sea lions, Zalophus wollebaeki, closely related to the California sea lion, but smaller
• Echinoderms
  • Sea cucumbers, the cause of environmental battles with fishermen over quotas of this expensive Asian delicacy

Images for kids

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  Galapagos Islands astronaut photo from ISS October 2020. The sunglint helps reveal features that are usually hard to spot, such as the crater lake occupying the summit caldera of La Cumbre, the shield volcano that makes up Fernandina Island. Click through for the full NASA discussion of this interesting photo.

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  Orthographic projection centered over the Galápagos.

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  RGB Radar map 2021. Composite by Pierre Markuse (@pierre_markuse)

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  School of scalloped hammerheads, Wolf Island, Galápagos Islands.

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  Grapsus grapsus on the rocks.

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  Satellite photo of the Galápagos islands overlaid with the names of the visible main islands.

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  Isabela seen from Spot Satellite.

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  Waved albatrosses on Española.

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  Galápagos marine iguana.

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  Main Street on San Cristóbal Island.

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  North Seymour Island in the Galápagos; Daphne Island is in the distance.

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  From an aircraft flying out of Baltra Island (on the right) and the Santa Cruz (on the left), the Itabaca Channel is the waterway between the islands.

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  These satellite maps show chlorophyll concentration (which corresponds with the abundance of phytoplankton) during El Niño (top) and La Niña (lower). Blue represents low concentrations, yellow, orange and red indicate high concentrations. Currents that normally fertilize the phytoplankton reverse during El Niño, resulting in barren oceans. These same currents are strengthened by La Niña, resulting in an explosion of ocean life.

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  The bottom image shows sea surface temperature, cool upwelling waters are coloured purple. Thriving phytoplankton populations are indicated by high chlorophyll concentrations (top image), coloured green, and yellow. Images acquired on 2 March 2009.

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  Adult Galápagos sea lion resting on a park bench in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

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  As described in 1684.

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  The marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) Galápagos Islands Santa Cruz – swimming in Puerto Ayora

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  Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), Tortuga Bay

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  Galápagos dove on Española Island

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  Galápagos penguin on Bartolomé Island

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  Bottlenose dolphins jumping offshore of the islands