Photographs from the Galápagos Islands

The photographs included here were all taken while I was doing fieldwork during my 18 trips to the Galápagos Islands between 1968 and 2019. 

Under separate sections, these photographs include:

  1. Places visited by Darwin during his five-week visit to the
    Galápagos Islands during the Beagle voyage (September-October, 1835).
  2. Birds.
  3. Reptiles.
  4. Other Galápagos animals and plants.

    (Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs are by Frank J. Sulloway.  Photos posted on this site shall not be used, or copied in any way, without permission.)

 

The author doing fieldwork on Santa Cruz Island in 2007. This photograph was taken at Bahia Tortuga at about 2:00 AM in the month of June, and it shows the heart of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius. The bright star about one body length above me and to my right is Alpha Centauri, the closest star to the Earth at 4.4 light years and the third brightest star in the night sky. The very bright object near the right edge of the photograph is Jupiter.  This photograph also shows several giant tree Opuntia, which play a key role in the Galápagos Islands ecosystem, providing food and moisture for many of the islands’ insects, birds, and reptiles, as well as for the endemic rice rat.