Galapagos – From Blue-footed Boobies to Swimming with Sharks (Part 2)

By Margriet Ruurs

This is the second part of Margriet's story of her visit to the Galapagos Islands. Click here for the first part.

Blue-footed Boobie!

We hiked across Mosquera Islet seeing many birds up close, including – to my delight – the Blue-footed Boobie. We had watched documentaries about the Galapagos and were thrilled to see these birds in real life, as well as the bright red Sally Lightfoot Crabs scurrying across the black lava rocks, pelicans, swallowtail gulls, and many others.

Male Frigate Bird

One of the funnest animals was the sea lion. They look exactly like our North American seals, but the ears show that they are sea lions. It is amazing that all animals here have no fear of people. The seals come right at you, follow you like puppies, and want to play. It is the hardest thing not to reach out and pet them.

But this is a National Park and everything is highly protected. You cannot take a rock or a shell or touch anything. And rightly so.

Next we hiked North Seymour Island where the huge Frigate Birds soared overhead and young ones with white heads in perched in trees, looking like bald eagles.

Iguanas live on most islands but they are different species, having adapted to life on each island. Some islands had black iguanas; elsewhere they were yellow or even pink. We also saw the swimming ocean iguanas.

We hiked across Santa Fe and South Plaza islands. Being on a boat allowed us to visit more places but it also had the disadvantage of rocking and bobbing.

However, the biggest thrill for me was being able to swim off the back of the boat. Even after a few excited calls of “Shark!” I couldn’t figure out why it was okay to swim when there were sharks, but I trusted that our guides knew what they were doing.

We snorkeled several times, and it was beyond description to be in the ocean and have a large sea lion coming straight at me like a bullet, only to veer off at the last second. At one point two sea lions swam alongside me on either side. I watched turtles swimming below me, and hundreds and hundreds of colourful fishes like parrot fish.

And sharks. White tip sharks. Pretty cool.

On San Cristobal Island we strolled through the town and it was a bizarre experience to run into two friends from Kelowna!

We visited the Galapagos Interpretation Center. Sweat dripped of our bodies as we just stood still, reading about the violent human history on the islands. The animals really ought to be afraid of humans. They killed over 100,000 turtles and thousands of whales during the mid-1800s to mid-1900s. Nowadays, 97% of the islands is strictly protected as a National Park. All we can do is hope it will always stay this way and that Galapagos’s amazing variety of wildlife, which so well demonstrates its capacity to change and adapt to its natural environment, will be around for generations to come.

Reflecting back on it all, I am very glad to have been able to make this amazing trip and to see these special places on Earth. But it is a very long way to travel, expensive, and a bit overrated. Like ‘Serengeti’ the name ‘Galapagos’ has mysterious allure, but we have visited many places where plants and wildlife have adapted to their environment, and places like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef where we also saw giant tortoises and birds that stayed a foot away from us.

If you can go, do it. But otherwise, savour nature around you anywhere – nature is always incredible and forever adapting.

All photos are Copyright ©Margriet Ruurs

Galapagos – From Blue-footed Boobies to Swimming with Sharks (Part 1)

By Margriet Ruurs

Margriet and Kees Ruurs start their Galapagos adventure.

Galapagos Islands: the very name conjures up images of a mysterious paradise, of unique species of animals that have adapted to their environment in special ways.

I am so glad and grateful that I had a chance to visit these faraway islands, even thought they have now lost some of their magic for me. But the intrigue has been replaced by memories of walking among iguanas and swimming with sharks and sea lions.

When we made the decision to travel to South America, there were two things high on our wish list: Easter Island and the Galapagos. I had read a wonderful, insightful book called Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman. This book heightened my wish to see these islands for myself.

We flew from Guayaquil, Ecuador, west across the Pacific and landed on one of the circa 40 Galapagos Islands (did you know there are so many islands here?!): Baltra. The humid heat hit us like a wall.

Tourists can travel to the Galapagos on their own or via a planned trip. But even if you go on your own, you cannot visit the National Park areas without a guide or small tour group. The Galapagos Islands are not only expensive to reach; they are expensive in every way, since all food and drink needs to come from far away.

A guide met us at the airport, expertly whisked our luggage away, and loaded us and about 18 others onto a bus. It was only a 10-minute drive to the boat launch where we climbed aboard a bobbing dinghy. We would repeat this exercise in agility many times in the coming days.

The dinghy brought us to a medium-sized yacht. The MV Coral I had about 14 cabins and a total of 20 guests on board plus a crew of 15, including two naturalists.

That first day we visited the Charles Darwin Station on Santa C,ruz Island. This is where the breeding program for the Galapagos Giant Tortoises takes place. Eggs from all over the islands are hatched here and the little Giant Tortoises (what do you call a little giant tortoise?) are raised until the age of five, when they are released in hopes that they will survive on their own.

We saw several huge, ancient tortoises as well as amazing prickly pear cactus trees that grow into huge trees over 400 years old. Unfortunately, the buildings were not open to the public and we did not see eggs or baby tortoises.

We walked through town and discovered that, like Easter Island, the Galapagos we had imagined was very different from reality. For instance, did you realize that the archipelago consists of nearly 40 islands, four of which are permanently inhabited?

And did you know that over 30,000 people live in Galapagos? I had no idea. The cities of Santa Cruz and San Cristobal have schools, stores, government buildings, and much more. Two airports serve the islands. Since Galapagos was used as a penal colony by Ecuador, most houses had bars and gates as opposed by the much more friendly atmosphere on Easter Island. The heat was incredible.

There is almost no rain on these lava islands. Some are lush and green, but others are a volcanic wasteland. In fact, one early explorer wrote home to describe that he had arrived in what he truly thought was hell!

That first night we slept well in our slightly rocking bunks. However, the next two nights were rough as we crossed open ocean and coped with high swells that rocked the small boat left to right and front to back. Things flew through the cabin, and we ended up sleeping on the outside deck. Most of us didn’t get sea sick, but we rocked for three days afterwards.

(To be continued....)

All photos are Copyright ©Margriet Ruurs

For Margriet's previous blog posts about her visit to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, click here and here.

Margriet Ruurs on the Galapagos Islands

By Claire Eamer

Our buddy and occasional Sci/Why blogger, Margriet Ruurs and her husband Kees have just completed an amazing trip to the Galapagos Islands, famed for the role they played in Darwin's understanding of evolution. Margriet is blogging about the experience - with beautiful photographs - on their Globetrotting Grandparents site, and I highly recommend following the series of posts. She has promised to write a post for Sci/Why eventually, but in the meanwhile you can enjoy her adventure - currently featuring blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds.

Shaking up the Face of Science History

By Claire Eamer

History books are still dominated by the doings of a bunch of white men - and the history of science is no exception. When I was researching my book Before the World Was Ready: Stories of Daring Genius in Science, I wanted to include more variety - women, people of other races, people from other cultures.

That, I discovered, is remarkably hard to do. I combed through a lot of books and articles, and I found some names to chase down. However, even with the names, information was often scarce or incomplete or not available in a language I can read.

Still – I found some smart and fascinating people, even more than I could fit into the book. Here are a few that made the cut.

We usually credit Copernicus with the idea that Earth is not the still centre of the universe, but rather a planet that spins on its axis and revolves around the Sun. But more than a thousand years earlier, in 499 CE, a young Indian mathematician and astronomer, Aryabhata, came to the same conclusion and wrote a book setting out his explanation – all in verse. He was only 23 years old at the time. India’s first satellite, launched in 1975, was named Aryabhata in his honour.

Aryabhata explaining his ideas, as seen by illustrator Sa Boothroyd. Courtesy of Annick Press.

Still among the stars, there was Caroline Herschel. Her brother, William, was a famous astronomer in 18th-century England, but Caroline was a pretty decent astronomer herself. A childhood illness left her stunted, barely 1.3 metres tall, but it didn’t stop her. She was an opera singer, kept house for her brother, took notes while he peered through his telescope, did mathematical calculations for him, and – in her spare time – made her own observations. She discovered eight comets and several nebulae, and she was the first woman to be made an honorary member of Britain's Royal Astronomical Society. Several comets, a lunar crater, and an asteroid have been named after her.

Mary Anning was an even less likely scientist than Caroline Herschel. She was born in 1799 to a very poor family in an English seaside resort. Mary, her mother, and her brother scoured the eroding cliffs near their home for fossils to sell from a table outside their tiny cottage. At age 12, Mary brought home one of the world’s first fossil ichthyosaurs. Later she discovered a plesiosaur, a pterosaur, and much more. She eventually became as much an expert as the wealthy scientists who bought her fossils, and, after her death, the president of the Geological Society of London delivered a speech in her honour.

Mary Anning and her fossil booth, according to illustrator Sa Boothroyd. Courtesy Annick Press.

One final example: Al-Jahiz. Al-Jahiz lived about 1,200 years ago in what is now Iraq. He was born poor, probably the descendant of an African slave, but he became a famous writer. One of his most famous works was the Book of Animals. In it, he wrote about food chains, in which smaller animals are eaten by ever-larger animals, all the way from minnows to sharks, and speculated about how the behaviour and even appearance of animals can be affected by their environment – ideas that wouldn’t become major concerns of European science until people like Charles Darwin came along, almost a thousand years later, to talk about evolution.

CONTEST CONTEST CONTEST!!! And a couple of new books.

By Claire Eamer

Free books are on offer at Sci/Why - and free Skype visits by author L. E. Carmichael, if you're a teacher or librarian. Just go to Talk About FOX TALK Contest and leave a comment. Every comment between now and August 20th (12:01 AM, Atlantic Time) will be entered to win an autographed copy of L. E. Carmichael's brand new book, FOX TALK. Everybody who spreads the word gets an extra entry, so share on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else. 

Hurry hurry hurry! This deal is too good to miss. Also, there are Foxes of Great Cuteness.

In more new-book news, two Sci/Why bloggers launched their own brand new books at When Words Collide in Calgary last weekend. It was an awesome, multi-genre festival of reading and writing -- consider signing up for next year. In the meantime, you can check out our freshly-launched books.

Claire Eamer launched her new book for Annick Press, BEFORE THE WORLD WAS READY: STORIES OF DARING GENIUS IN SCIENCE. Read about what happened when people weren’t ready to listen to innovators who came up with revolutionary ideas. And about the folks with the amazing ideas. 

And Helaine Becker launched her beloved comic poem ODE TO UNDERWEAR, out in a new, picture-book format from Scholastic. 

As Helaine says, "From boxers to bloomers and briefs to bikinis, whether they're frilly, silly, or saggy, you'll find them all in this silly romp through your top drawers. That's a pun, BTW. Did you get it?"

And if you missed this book launch, watch out for more opportunities to celebrate the arrival of new books by the Sci/Why crew. We'll let you know.

But it will be hard to top Calgary. There were cupcakes. REALLY GOOD CUPCAKES! Honestly, you shoulda been there, folks.

Talk About FOX TALK Contest

by L. E. Carmichael

Have you ever noticed that domestic animals share physical characteristics with each other, but not with their wild ancestors? Floppy ears, for instance. Elephants are the only wild species with floppy ears, but they occur in breeds of dog, horse, pig, and even rabbit.

Darwin was the first scientist to study this, but he couldn't explain it. Almost 100 years later, Russian geneticist Dmitri Belyaev took up the challenge. Belyaev believed that the most important trait domestic animals shared was their behaviour - their tolerance of, and affection for, humans. He believed that selecting animals for tame behaviour changed something so fundamental in the species' DNA, a cascade of physical changes would also result.

There was only one way to prove this hypothesis - an experiment. In 1959, Belyaev set out to domesticate foxes. Starting with animals purchased from fur farms, his team bred only the tamest foxes each generation. After only four rounds of breeding, a fox pup wagged its tail at a researcher... something no fox had ever done before. And it wasn't just behaviour that changed: fifty years later, the foxes look like this:

Warning: this much cuteness may cause your heart to burst!
Image courtesy of Dr. Svetlana Gogoleva

The white markings on the face of the center fox is another trait common to domestic animals. Belyaev's team identified the gene that produces these marks, as well as genes that are linked to tame behaviour - to domestication itself. And these days, the foxes are so domesticated, people keep them as pets!

I learned about this experiment my first year of graduate school. After I finished shrieking "OMG I want one!" I couldn't wait to learn more about domestic foxes, and I am beyond thrilled that I've been given a chance to write about them. Aimed at kids ages 8-10, FOX TALK releases August 20th. It's about communication between humans and animals, and how domestic foxes helped crack the code.

To celebrate the launch - and the launch of my shiny new website - I'm having a Talk About FOX TALK contest! Every comment between now and August 20th (12:01 AM, Atlantic Time) will be entered to win an autographed copy of the book. Everybody who spreads the word gets an extra entry, so share on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else you like - just leave me a comment with a link.

For teachers, librarians, and anyone else who works with kids, I'm offering a bonus prize - an hour-long author visit via Skype. You can choose from my workshops and school programs, or request a topic your group will love.

So let's talk! What are your thoughts on the domestication experiment? Would you want a fox of your own? How much of what you say does your pet understand? I'd love to know. :D

A Call to Arms – and Flippers, Too

Posted by Helaine Becker



Image: Cedars-Sinai.edu

 Readers of The Globe and Mail were treated to this headline this morning: “Children’s book too hot for U.S. publishers warmly received in Canada.” Naturally, I was intrigued.

The book in question turned out to be a children’s nonfiction title, published by Kids Can Press: Evolution, by Daniel Loxton.

I had the great pleasure of reading the book when I sat on the judges’ panel for the Lane Anderson Science Writing for Children Award back in June. I can tell you that the book was so well-received by all the judges that it made the shortlist, along with Sea Wolves is by Ian McAllister and Nicholas Read, and Ultimate Trains by Peter MacMahon (The winner of the award, and the $10,000 cash prize will be announced later today).

So what’s the trouble with Evolution? It’s factually correct, sensitively and intelligently written, and beautifully designed; the perfect introduction to one of the most important principles in biology, for children and adults.

But for U.S. publishers, according to Loxton, it was “too hot a topic” – i.e., they were afraid of pressure from creationist yahoos (my expression, not Loxton's).  All declined to publish it.

As a born-and-bred Yank, I’m appalled by this thoroughly chickenshit (a well-known scientific term) behavior on the part of my fellow Americans. Book people should know better. Forgive the book-related pun, but book people should  show some spine.  Yes, I know, the book biz is struggling, publishers need to feel certain that a book will make money. But really – you don’t think there’s a big enough market to support a terrific science book? Puh-leeze.

On the flip side, I’m feeling great pride that one of my own publishers here in Canada, Kids Can Press, isn’t as much of a weenie as their American counterparts. They knew a good book when they saw one, and decided to publish it for all the right reasons. I bet they’ll make a mint on it too.

Gillian O’Reilly, the Editor of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre News, is not surprised that Evolution found a home in Canada. She thinks Canadian publishers have distinguished themselves in science publishing for many years. “It's interesting that the American Institute of Physics award for science writing has gone to Canadian books five times since 2001,” she says. “The subjects have been wide-ranging (space, engineering feats and failures, dinosaur poop, math all around us and explosions of all sorts)… I see a lot of great Canadian books in my role, and I think Canadian publishers are willing to take risks and be inventive when it comes to science for kids.”

So bouquets and two opposable thumbs up go to Kids Can Press and all of the other vertebrates (i.,e, those with backbones) of the Canadian children’s publishing scene.

And brickbats go to American publishing invertebrates (read: woosies) who clearly have devolved since The Origin of the Species was published in 1859.

 To read the Globe article, go here.

To find out more about the Lane Anderson Award, go here.

To find out more about Daniel Loxton’s Evolution and/or to buy the book, go here.