इक्वाडोर – आवारा मुसाफिर

Galapagos Islands and many unique creatures are at risk from warming waters

July 30, 2024317 Views

Warm morning light reflects from the remains of a natural rock arch near Darwin Island, one of the most remote islands in the Galapagos. In clear, deep blue water, thousands of creatures — fish, hammerhead sharks, marine iguanas — move in search of food. The 2021 collapse of Darwin’s Arch, named for the famed British naturalist behind the theory of evolution, came from natural erosion. But its demise underscored the fragility of a far-flung archipelago that’s coming under increased pressure both from climate change and invasive species. A piece of the edge of Darwin’s Arch is visible in the ocean above Pacific creolefish off of Darwin Island, Ecuador in the Galapagos on Thursday, June 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alie Skowronski) Warming oceans affect the food sources of many of the seago...

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New species of Amazon anaconda, world’s largest snake, discovered

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

March 3, 2024551 Views

Researchers in the Amazon have discovered the world's largest snake species - an enormous green anaconda - in Ecuador's rainforest that split off from its closest relatives 10 million years ago though they still nearly look identical to this day. A video shared online shows the scale of these 20-foot-long (6.1-meter-long) reptiles as one of the researchers, Dutch biologist Freek Vonk, swims alongside a giant 200-kilo (441-pound) specimen. It was thought that there was only one species of green anaconda in the wild, the Eunectes murinus, but the scientific journal Diversity this month revealed that the new "northern green anaconda" belongs to a different, new species, Eunectes akiyama. "What we were there to do was use the anacondas as an indicator species for what kind of dam...

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A cluster of lost cities in Ecuadorian Amazon that lasted 1,000 years has been mapped

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 12, 2024480 Views

Archeologists have uncovered a cluster of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest that was home to at least 10,000 farmers around 2,000 years ago. A series of earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador was first noticed more than two decades ago by archaeologist Stéphen Rostain. But at the time, “I wasn’t sure how it all fit together,” said Rostain, one of the researchers who reported on the finding Thursday in the journal Science. Recent mapping by laser-sensor technology revealed those sites to be part of a dense network of settlements and connecting roadways, tucked into the forested foothills of the Andes, that lasted about 1,000 years. This LIDAR image provided by researchers in January 2024 shows complexes of rectangular platforms are arranged around low squares and distribute...

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Scientists discover hammerhead shark nursery in Ecuador’s Galapagos

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 18, 2022432 Views

A team of researchers has discovered a nursery of baby hammerhead sharks off an island in Ecuador's Galapagos archipelago, a finding that could help protect the species from the threat of extinction. The so-called haven for hammerhead hatchlings, who are less than a year old, was discovered near Isabela Island, the Galapagos' largest island, and offers refuge for the sharks during mating and early development stages. A view shows a part of the area from the Galapagos National Park, where a shark nursery was discovered off Isabela Island in the Galapagos, Ecuador, in this photo delivered by Galapagos National Park newsletter on December 16, 2022. REUTERS/Galapagos National Park/Handout via REUTERS "The discovery of these new breeding areas is very important, especially for the ham...

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‘Fantastic giant tortoise,’ believed extinct, confirmed alive in the Galápagos

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

June 10, 2022262 Views

A tortoise from a Galápagos species long believed extinct has been found alive. The tortoise, named Fernanda after her Fernandina Island home, is the first of her species identified in more than a century. The Fernandina Island Galápagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus, or “fantastic giant tortoise”) was known only from a single specimen, collected in 1906. The discovery in 2019 of a female tortoise living on Fernandina Island provided the opportunity to determine if the species lives on. By sequencing the genomes of both the living individual and the museum specimen, and comparing them to the other 13 species of Galápagos giant tortoises, Princeton’s Stephen Gaughran showed that the two known Fernandina tortoises are members of the same species, genetically distinct from all ...

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Researchers detect a tropical plant species presumed to be extinct

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

April 18, 2022861 Views

A research group rediscovered a plant called Gasteranthus extinctus, at Centinela Ridge in Western Ecuador, named to anticipate its extinction Two University of Miami researchers were part of a team that rediscovered a tropical plant species believed to be extinct for almost 40 years. At the encouragement of his advisor, biology associate professor Kenneth Feeley, graduate student Riley Fortier joined a small expedition in November to the Centinela Ridge in western Ecuador, a place well known to biologists for its many rare species. The team was searching for a low-lying South American wildflower named Gasteranthus extinctus, which was discovered in the 1980s. The species was given its unique moniker in 2000 because scientists expected the plant to be extinct, since many of the Ecua...

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Galapagos tortoises belong to new species

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

March 12, 20221365 Views

Scientists have discovered that a type of giant tortoise present on one of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands is not from the species it was previously thought to be, Galapagos National Park said. A study concluded that the giant tortoises living on San Cristobal island, previously identified as Chelonoidis chathamensis, correspond genetically to a different species, the park has said in a statement. FILE PHOTO: A tortoise is pictured on the island of San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador January 16, 2019. Galapagos National Park/Handout via REUTERS "The scientists concluded that nearly 8,000 tortoises which exist today on San Cristobal are not Chelonoidis chathamensis but correspond to a completely new lineage that has not yet been described," the park said. The discovery was ma...

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Ecuador expands protected marine area around Galapagos Islands

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 15, 2022309 Views

Ecuador on Friday created a new marine reserve around its pristine Galapagos Islands -- whose rich biodiversity inspired Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution -- as it seeks to expand protections for endangered migratory species. Extending the reserve by 60,000 square kilometers (23,166 square miles) is the first step in a plan agreed by Ecuador with its close neighbors Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama at the U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow last year to create a common corridor through which species threatened by climate change and industrial fishing can migrate. The existing Galapagos marine reserve, one of the largest in the world, measures some 138,000 square kilometers (53,282 square miles), and the new conservation area will see 198,000 square kilometers (76,448 square miles) ...

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Darwin’s Arch at Galapagos Island collapses

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

May 19, 20211587 Views

Darwin's Arch, a famed natural rock formation in the Galapagos Islands that is popular with divers, photographers and cruise-ship tourists, has collapsed from erosion, Ecuadorean environmental officials said on Tuesday. Photographs posted on social media by Ecuador's Environment Ministry showed rubble from the curvature of the arch visible in the ocean, with the two supporting columns still standing. Darwin's Arch- Earlier and now "We report that the iconic Arc of Darwin collapsed," the ministry wrote in Spanish on its Facebook page. The arch, named for British naturalist Charles Darwin, stands at the northernmost tip of the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean 600 miles (965 km) west of Ecuador. Darwin’s observation of finches and organisms on the is...