My Year of Darwin 5/30/2014: Galapagos animals not so wild

 

"As the birds are so tame there, where foxes, hawks, and owls occur, we may infer that the absence of all rapacious animals at the Galapagos is not the cause of their tameness here." Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

The birds of the Galapagos are easily approachable and Darwin explains how tame and easily killed birds are - by him and by locals. Darwin observed a child knocking birds on the head with a stick as they came to drink at a well. Apparently, before the Galapagos became a penal colony, the birds were even tamer and landed on sailors. But there are predators there and man is not recognized as one of them. I don't know what the current situation is with most birds (another reason to get there) but I do know that one can closely approach the Blue-footed Boobies. Cool!