PART I

INTRODUCTION

This exploration book is an introduction to Evolution and Eco-tourism divided in three parts: 1) A brief History of the Islands, 2) Darwin's actual Notes from "The Voyages of the Beagle" in 1835, and 3)  A summary of ecological data for each of the major islands with an open  invitation to Eco-tourism.

(The Reader can read-or-download this first chapter summary for free or can order the complete three-part book by sending a check or using Pay-Pal online)...

The term "Galápagos" –“saddle" refers to the Spanish name given to the shells of saddle-backed Giant Land Tortoises that inhabit some of the islands. The archipelago has been known by different names, including the  “Archipiélago de Colón, Islas de Colónumio” or "Enchanted Islands" because of the way in which the strong and swift currents made navigation difficult. One of the oldest crude navigation chart of the islands was done by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley in 1684. He named the islands after some of his fellow pirates or after the English noblemen who helped the pirates' cause. More recently however, the Ecuadorian government gave most of the islands Spanish names. While the Spanish names are official, many users continue to use the older English names, particularly as those were the names used when the British HMS Beagle visited the area.

      Charles Darwin's observations on the structure of the living world and his radical ideas on the gradual evolution of the species transformed nature’s studies from a collection of curious but disconnected facts into a vigorous and diversified field of natural sciences. The foundation for his theory of evolution by natural selection is henceforth traced back to a five-year voyage around the world as a naturalist on board HMS Beagle. The voyage’s official mission was to map the east and west coasts of South America and to complete a series of chronometric readings while circumnavigating the globe.

Captain Fitz Roy was terrified of the loneliness and isolation that he would face during the long mission (the captain on the previous voyage, committed suicide). He therefore hit upon the idea of inviting a gentleman of appropriate social standing to be his guest. In return, the companion would have the rare opportunity to visit exotic locales and see new and amazing sights. The position was offered to Leonard Jenyns and John Henslow, both naturalist and clergymen but they declined because of family situations. Henslow, who was also Darwin's mentor, recommended Darwin as the best qualified person who would be most likely to accept.

The Beagle departed on 27 December 1831 on what was meant to have been a three-year voyage, and it returned on  October 2, 1836. Although the Beagle is best remembered for its stop in the Galápagos, it took almost four years after leaving England for the ship to initially arrive at the islands. Since the primary purpose of the voyage was a surveying and mapping expedition for the British government, the vessel stopped several times before and after reaching the Galápagos: they were stops in the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Brazil, Argentina, the Falklands, Tierra del Fuego (Chapters 1-12 on The Voyage of the Beagle reprinted on chapter two) Continuing on their surveying mission, the vessel traveled up the Chilean coast to anchor off the coast of Peru. From this point, on September 7, 1835, the Beagle set sail for the Galápagos archipielago, a cluster of islands on the equator -about 600 miles west of South American’s main land- reaching the Chatham Island [San Crístobal] on 9/15.

After only five weeks in the Galápagos, Darwin, Captain Fitz Roy, and the crew of the Beagle departed from the enchanted islands and arrived in Tahiti a few weeks later (November, 1835). Another year passed with stops in New Zealand, Australia, Mauritius, and the Azores. On the 2nd of October [1836] the expedition finally made it back to the shores of Falmouth, England, where Charles Darwin left the Beagle, having lived on board the modest vessel nearly five years.

This book is primarily based on Darwin's experiences- not during the whole five years- but during the specific five weeks he spent at the Galapagos (Voyage of the Beagle, Chapter 12), an expeditionary stop which would prove rather important to shape his forthcoming views that have forever changed the world.  It was at that incidental moment that Charles Darwin started to wonder “why” while observing the geological changes and the adaptations of living organism to new environment as evidence of gradual evolution by a process of natural selection.

Like any present day visitor to the islands, the initial reaction of Darwin was probably a mix of shock and wonder. After his return to England, Darwin stated, "one is astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expression may be used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands, and still more so, at its diverse yet analogous action on points so near each other." (Voyage 383)

Throughout his notes and later writings, such a tone of amazement remains present. He describes the marine iguanas, which had been nicknamed "imps of darkness" by his fellow sailors. Two forms of iguanas lived in these islands: Each type had apparent affinities with the common South American green iguana, yet somehow they had ‘adapted’ so profoundly to different ecologic niches in the islands that they had become two separate genera. Some islands developed their own races of unusual lizards. Moreover, he found giant tortoises that differed from one another as the different island from which they came from.

Whatever one's views on evolutionary theories may be, Charles Darwin's powers of observation cannot be disputed. In a region where one can spend hours marveling at the diversity and uniqueness of flora and fauna present, the ability of Darwin to take copious notes served him well later on in the development of his theories. After all, Darwin did not arrive at the Galapagos and immediately "discover" evolution. In fact, the Beagle only remained in the islands for a total of five weeks, during which the sailors only set foot on the islands of San Crístobal, Floreana, Isabella, and Santiago. Thus, even the scope of his raw data was limited, especially since he was hindered in his ability to record sub-volcanic activity or view the diverse underwater life in the vicinity.

The diversity of life is certainly manifested in his annotations: whether botanical, terrestrial, avian, aquatic or insectivorous, Darwin took notes and collected specimens of many of the species present in islands, including humans. He took notice on the ability of certain sailors to distinguish among the different island species based on the shell patterns of the reptiles, a collection of which was of later influence on Darwin's theories. The tameness of the animals, especially the birds, was also duly noted; it is interesting that over 200 years of visitors-contact have passed with most of the animal’s behavior remaining mostly unaffected by human presence. 

Many of the birds that Darwin found, especially the land birds, were endemic species found nowhere else on earth. In 1835 he identified thirteen different types of finches whose beaks were biologically modified to different sub-environments on the islands. The different shapes of their bills, suited to different diets and habitats, show the process of adaptive radiation. From P.R. Grant, Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches (1986).

Microevolution

The geographic separation of populations derived from common ancestors of theses birds may continue long enough so that separated inhabitants become completely differentiated species. There is ample evidence that the adaptive processes described above are at work in natural habitats, specially, at the Galapagos. Today, these changes are called microevolution—in other words, small-scale evolution in terms of time and scope. Even within the relatively short period of time since Darwin, it has been possible to document such evolutionary evidence.

If the Galapagos Islands were volcanic in nature and relatively recently formed, Darwin reasoned, then the animals that dwelt there had to have come from someplace else.  But from where? Those most closely resembling the Galapagos community were the animals that lived on the continental mainland. But they were not the same animals. Why? His reflection on what he had seen, these adapted residents and the new geological formations present in the islands would eventually lead to formulate his ideas on natural selection.

“Why?” That was the question that plagued Darwin and led him to think outside of the box. Eight years after his return, Darwin wrote to his close friend and colleague, Sir Joseph Hooker about his change of mind: "At last gleams of light have come, and I am almost convinced (quite to the contrary to the opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable."

“Change over time” was the beginning of apparent Biblical contradictions: According to Genesis stories and the religious majority, an immutable Christian God created all plants and animals, fish to swim in the water and birds to fly in the sky; none of them existed before and tradition held they have not changed significantly since their divine creation. Yet the only way that Darwin could explain differences and similarities of his observations was to concluded that most creatures and plants had indeed changed… that some continue to change, that many species have disappeared while others are adapting to the environment… and some may have been significantly different in the past... a long past. 

Although Darwin is credited with the theory of evolution, he did not create his work in isolation. In the late 1830s, Darwin was surrounded by a number of British thinkers who provided information to correspond with his raw data from the Beagle voyage. Charles Lyell was the most important; Darwin had taken the first volume of his Principles of Geology along on his trip around the world. In this work, Lyell outlined his uniformitarian beliefs, in that “changes were brought about by slow, constant processes over time.” Based on this principle, the earth was much older than had originally been preached by creationist (6,000 years), and the same forces present at that time could be applied to the world today. From his observations in the Galápagos, Darwin was able to assert the validity of Lyell's theory and recognize the relative youth of the islands when compared with mainland South America; thus, the large variety of life present struck him as even more fascinating.

For more than ten years after his voyage, 1842-54 Darwin began to prepare his manuscript on natural selection via an extensive examination of his pre-existing collection of notes, including those on the Galápagos. At this point, the importance of the islands came to light; in the descent of multiple species from a common ancestor, it was necessary for each variety to become "adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature." (Autobiography 72) Hence, the realization of the methodology of specialization of the finches became the classic example of Darwinian evolution.

The Origin of the Species.

Darwin was still preparing his manuscript in the summer of 1858, when he received a copy of the essay “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type”, which was written by Alfred Russel Wallace from Malaysia. Essentially containing the same ideas that Darwin had begun formulating twenty years before, Darwin rushed to joint-publish with Wallace in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. Thirteen months later, 1959, The Origin of Species was published.

Possibly the most controversial book ever published, all 1250 copies of the first edition of The Origin of Species were sold on the very first day. In addition to the obvious conflict with the direct account of creation in the book of Genesis, controversy surrounded the work's classification of humans as just one more type of animal life subject to the same forces as the rest of the world's species. The increased role of chance in the development of species also angered some, including men of science like Louis Agassiz, who maintained his criticism of Darwinism until his death in 1873. Despite general opposition, however, the treatise began to be embraced by young professional scientists looking for not only a way to jump-start their careers, but also a way to distinguish between the conflict between certain aspects of science and religion. In addition, the rational line of thought involved began to appeal to a growing number of older scientists, and his fluid writing style made the book accessible for the general public. Thus, the fame of Charles Darwin was assured, and his theory of evolution by natural selection began to grow in popularity.

Is evolution fact or theory?

There may be some readers who still claim that evolution is "only" a theory that can't be proven. This group needs to distinguish between the fact that gradual change occurs daily and the theory, which explains the mechanism of evolution.

In everyday language, "theory" often means a hypothesis or even a mere speculation. But in science, "theory" means "a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed." as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it. Just as the theory of relativity, gravity and quantum mechanics, the theory of evolution is a body of interconnected statements about natural selection and the other processes that cause evolution. Furthermore, the statement that organisms have descended with modifications from common ancestors is not a theory: It is the historical reality of evolution. Like the fact of the heliocentric solar system, the theory of evolution began as a hypothesis, and achieved "facthood" as the evidence in its favor became so strong that no knowledgeable and unbiased person could deny its reality.

We also need to distinguish between facts that are easy to demonstrate and those that are more circumstantial. The evidence that Homo sapiens and chimpanzees share a recent common ancestor falls into this category. However, there is so much new evidence in support of primate evolution (98%) that it qualifies as a fact by any common definition of the word "fact”. Indeed, since the publication of The Origin of Species, the important question about evolution has not been whether it has taken place. Today, what are at issue within biology are questions of details on the processes and the relative importance of different mechanisms by which evolution actually occurs.

Evolution is a fact, not just a theory. It is a fact that the earth is more than 3.5 billion years old. It is a fact that cellular life has been around for at least half of that period and that organized multi-cellular life is at least 800 million years old. It is a fact that major life forms now on earth were not at all represented in the past. It is a fact that major life forms of the past are no longer living, as there were no birds or mammals 250 million years ago. For example, fossil remains indicate that there used to be dinosaurs and pithecanthropus but there are none now.  It is a fact that all known living forms come from previous living forms. Therefore, we can conclude that all present forms of life arose from ancestral forms that may have been somewhat different. No person who pretends to have any understanding of the natural world can deny these facts any more than she or he can deny that the earth is round, rotates on its axis, and it revolves around a burning star we call the sun.

For science students around the world, Charles Darwin stands as a giant, along with the likes of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, in shaping our intellectual beliefs and mode of thinking. Through his work, we have gained a further appreciation of the Galapagos Islands scientifically, not just as a tourist source of awe-inspiring geology and wonder-provoking animals.

Places in Charles Darwin honor.

Today, Charles Darwin is remembered throughout the Galápagos Islands: Charles Darwin Avenue, Darwin Bay, Darwin Island, Charles Darwin Research Station, the bust of Charles Darwin on San Crístobal and Darwin's finches. After all, it was the initial fame of Darwin and his voyage around the world that brought attention to the islands, and with attention comes the eco-tourism controversy and money to the Ecuadorian government. It is interesting to note that Darwin is honored as a famous naturalist and visitor by the Ecuadorian people but most of them not necessarily know him as the originator of the theory of evolution, which contains so much evidence in and around these islands. Ironically, 90% of the residents still believe in creation stories preached by the Roman Catholic-Christian faith. The immense information gap between the local populations and international visitors shows the need to promote an educational outreach for the understanding of the natural selection process that has made these islands so famous.

"The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career"; so says Darwin in his Autobiography. Indeed Darwin’s visit to the islands did not change the islands much, but the foray of natural history within the Galapagos resulted in the one decisive event of his life.  It is within this context of rational exploration that we invite the reader to review Darwin’s original notes from the Voyage of the Beagle , which are partially reproduced in part II.  We also provide multiple data from each of the islands and recommend you to embark in one of the many Mini-Expeditions of eco-tourism listed in part III.