{"id":65,"date":"2026-02-02T16:16:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/?p=65"},"modified":"2026-02-02T16:16:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:16:59","slug":"visit-to-the-galapagos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/2026\/02\/02\/visit-to-the-galapagos\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to the Galapagos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our research in the Galapagos is built on a strong foundation of personal relationships, and so visiting every once in a while is important to reinforce those friendships. Online meetings can only go so far! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The roadside welcoming committee of tortoises on our drive into town upon arrival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I managed to sneak away from Newcastle for 2 weeks in January and brought along fellow Senior Lecturer in the Ecology group, Simon Maddock. He is a herpetology expert familiar with mainland Ecuador, but it was his first time to the home of evolutionary biology! I think the iguanas made a particular impression on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Simon and his new pal, the marine iguana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We divided our days between the Galapagos Biosecurity Agency, presenting the findings of our ddRAD study of the invasive opossum population (now successfully eradicated!); the Galapagos Conservancy, presenting new results on the Southern Isabela giant tortoise populations; the Santa Cruz breeding centre, collecting blood samples from the juveniles soon to be released to repopulate Floreana Island; and visiting Isabela Island (my first time) to see the breeding centre there and get a feel for the landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baby sea lion and marine iguana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Flamingo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A “rubbish reptile” according to Simon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sierra Negra tortoise at the Isabela Breeding centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Marine iguana stalking the beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lava lizard posing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were many highlights of the trip (it’s the Galapagos!) but at the top of my list was delivering not one, but two outreach talks, aimed at members of the Association of Naturalist Guides on Isabela and Santa Cruz Islands. The talk presented our recent research to answer the question “How many species of Galapagos giant tortoise are there”?, which is something the guides are asked all the time by the tourists they host. There is no better audience than the guides, they are hungry for information and absolutely dedicated to understanding everything and having their facts straight. I felt so lucky to have the opportunity to “educate the educators”, who will now pass this knowledge on to the hundreds of visitors they interact with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Presentation to the naturalist guides on Isabela<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am looking forward to doing it all again in a year or two!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A beautiful beavy of blue footed boobies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our research in the Galapagos is built on a strong foundation of personal relationships, and so visiting every once in a while is important to reinforce those friendships. Online meetings can only go so far!  I managed to sneak away … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12241,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/evelynjensen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}