The Galápagos
The world’s most treasured islands
It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Galápagos as a scientific and natural treasure. These islands hold untold volumes of information on unique species and evolutionary processes. With their sparkling blue waters and jet-black cliffs, the islands are a magnificent sight to behold.
They lie in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 600 miles from the mainland. Like all oceanic archipelagos, or groups of islands, the 13 large islands and more than 100 smaller islands, islets and rocks were formed by underwater volcanoes millions of years ago.
In 1959, the Galápagos became Ecuador’s first national park, and in 1978 the area was declared a World Heritage Site.
The place. An oceanic archipelago of 13 large islands and more than 100 smaller ones. With an array of terrains created by different elevations and wind patterns, the Galápagos encompasses deserts with forests of cacti, subtropical forests harboring giant tortoises, lush cloud forests with towering scalesia trees, and wetlands cloaked in ferns and grasses.
The species. The islands and rich waters are home to nearly 9,000 species, most found nowhere else and adapting undisturbed since prehistoric times—the only penguin in the northern hemisphere, the only ocean-going lizard, plants that reproduce without pollination. Species occur in huge concentrations, hundreds of marine iguanas and up to a million birds can be seen at once.
The people. People are the new species here, having first set foot on the islands in the 1800s and arriving in greater numbers in the 1920s. Local livelihoods—farming, fishing, and tourism—depend on nature. Today, in response to tourism trade, more and more people are migrating to the islands.
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Travel to the Galápagos
The Galápagos Islands, named for the giant tortoises that are among its most noted inhabitants, are like nowhere else in the world.
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Adopt a Blue-footed Booby
Make a symbolic blue-footed booby adoption to help save some of the world's most endangered animals from extinction and support WWF's conservation efforts.
