Cerro Dragon, Santa Cruz Island
Visiting the Galápagos Islands is an experience full of surprises and today’s visit was not an exception. It is hard to believe that among a tiny group of islands in the pacific there could be so much biodiversity.
Cerro Dragon is an area located at the north-western side of Santa Cruz Island, and it serves as evidence of the efforts to preserve this enchanted archipelago have been successful.
Years ago, the first successful town in the Galápagos was founded by Norwegians in the late 1920’s at the southern side of Santa Cruz; the town was called Pto Ayora and it was a small fishing community. By then, conservation was not an issue almost anywhere in the world, the least in the Galápagos, which is why cats and dogs, as well as some other alien species to the island were introduced en masse. By the mid-seventies, the area considered in the modern day as Cerro Dragon was full of wild cats and dogs. As you can imagine, this represented a direct threat to species like the land iguanas that until then did not have any natural enemies. Fortunately when the problem was detected, efforts to eradicate the cats and dogs were developed and successfully achieved. By now, the population of cats and dogs in the area have been dropped to very low levels for the sake of the endemic flora and fauna found in that area.
The iguana is only one example of the excellent work that the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station had done through the years to maintain a pristine ecosystem in the islands, and in that way assurethat the natural development of this archipelago considered by all of us as the last immaculate treasure in the world.
Visiting the Galápagos Islands is an experience full of surprises and today’s visit was not an exception. It is hard to believe that among a tiny group of islands in the pacific there could be so much biodiversity.
Cerro Dragon is an area located at the north-western side of Santa Cruz Island, and it serves as evidence of the efforts to preserve this enchanted archipelago have been successful.
Years ago, the first successful town in the Galápagos was founded by Norwegians in the late 1920’s at the southern side of Santa Cruz; the town was called Pto Ayora and it was a small fishing community. By then, conservation was not an issue almost anywhere in the world, the least in the Galápagos, which is why cats and dogs, as well as some other alien species to the island were introduced en masse. By the mid-seventies, the area considered in the modern day as Cerro Dragon was full of wild cats and dogs. As you can imagine, this represented a direct threat to species like the land iguanas that until then did not have any natural enemies. Fortunately when the problem was detected, efforts to eradicate the cats and dogs were developed and successfully achieved. By now, the population of cats and dogs in the area have been dropped to very low levels for the sake of the endemic flora and fauna found in that area.
The iguana is only one example of the excellent work that the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station had done through the years to maintain a pristine ecosystem in the islands, and in that way assurethat the natural development of this archipelago considered by all of us as the last immaculate treasure in the world.
