Galapagos Islands | AboutGalapagos.com

Mammals of the Galapagos

Native land mammals are rare in the Galapagos, largely due to the islands’ evolution in isolation. The species that do inhabit the islands had to travel quite a distance to get there. Among the bats and rats that made the long journey from South America, the Galapagos Islands are home to rare reptiles, thousands of species of birds, fish, insects and invertebrates.

If the more personable, warm-blooded variety are your passion, what you will find is a wondrous assortment of Galapagos marine mammals. The barking of the ever-playful Galapagos sea lion, the rare rising of a sperm whale or the leaps and flips of a streamlined bottlenose dolphin are spectacles that will delight you.

Snorkeling and diving in the Galapagos offer some of the best opportunities to experience the marine mammals of the islands in their natural environment. There are few encounters more magical than swimming alongside a graceful green sea turtle, or watching a Galapagos penguin whiz toward a school of fish, or coming mask to whiskers with a quizzical sea lion.
MEET THE MAMMALS OF THE GALAPAGOS

Galapagos Sea Lion
One of the most conspicuous of Galapagos marine mammals, the Galapagos sea lion is a great source of entertainment to island visitors. Curious and friendly, they will frequently swim with snorkelers, swooshing past and sometimes stopping for a few seconds for a face-to-face encounter. While they spend a lot of time swimming in the ocean, they also frequent sandy beaches and flat rocky areas with tide pools. Typically, a colony will consist of approximately 30 females headed by one bull, but some colonies, such as the one at Gardner Bay on Espanola, have more than 200 individuals. Bulls that are not dominating a colony will gather in a bachelor group. Galapagos sea lions breed between May and January, and mating usually occurs in the water. After a gestation period of 11 months, females give birth to a single pup that weighs about 13 pounds. The mother stays by the baby's side till it is about a week old, at which time she returns to the sea to feed, coming back to her pup at night. Once a pup is 1-2 weeks old, it will venture into the water with its mother to learn to swim. Pups are weaned when they are about a year old. Like their parents, they will turn to a diet of fish, squid, octopus and crustaceans. The Galapagos sea lion's main predators are sharks and orcas (killer whales).
 

 Galapagos Fur Seal
Endemic to the islands, Galapagos fur seals are the smallest and most terrestrial of all fur seal species. spending only 70 percent of their time in the water. Yet they are not seen as frequently by visitors as sea lions are, since they prefer rocky, steeper shores and shaded grottos. It can be difficult to tell the two apart, but the fur seal has a broader, shorter head with a more pointed nose. They also have thicker fur, which is dark gray-brown to nearly black. Their dense, glossy coats made them a prize target of furriers in the 1800s, when they were hunted nearly to extinction. They have made an impressive comeback, though, and island visitors are likely to see them in the fur seal grottos at James Bay on Santiago and Darwin Bay, Genovesa.