Coincidence - Alan May [43]
And there, most amazing of all, were the famed blue-footed boobies, the most improbable of birds. Surely such creatures could exist only in a cartoon. The thought popped into Dave’s mind that they looked like caricatures of bewigged judges in a British court of law, wearing, with dignified eccentricity, their judicial robes, and, for some inexplicable reason, bright blue Wellington boots. The image made him laugh out loud.
The Floaties, who had been staring at the scene, began to laugh, too, and jabber about the sights before them. Pierre shouted and pointed to a booby plummeting straight off the cliff into the water. It was soon joined by dozens—maybe hundreds—more, in a great cacophony of honks and whistles, all furling their wings behind and then dropping headfirst with such force into the bay that it was hard to believe they could survive the experience.
Tom Michaels, who had witnessed this behavior before but never failed to be dazzled by it, explained that the birds had spotted a school of fish in the waters below and were “plunge diving” in a feeding frenzy.
“Special air sacs protect their skulls from the impact,” he said. “The blue-footed boobies are only one of the many remarkable creatures to be found in the Galápagos. When Charles Darwin visited the islands in 1835, he found that fully half the birds and plants were different from the species known anywhere else on earth. About a third of the shore fish and nearly all of the reptiles also differed. These variations helped him establish his theory of evolution.
“Contrary to popular belief, however, Darwin did not leave the islands with a sudden dawn of enlightenment. He still believed in the creation of life along the lines of the Bible. The seeds of inquiry had been sown, however, and they matured in his mind over the years.”
Melissa loved to see her teachers’ excitement—in fact they were practically falling over one another in their eagerness to explain what was going on and to establish relationships between the different subjects. Back home she went from one class to the next never even thinking that they might fit together into one integrated whole.
It was a combination of human and environmental factors, Dave said, that had contributed to the deterioration of plant and animal life here. Humans, starting with the earliest explorers, had killed many of the native tortoises for food; some varieties had nearly become extinct. In addition, they had released, either accidentally or on purpose, the goats, pigs, burros, and cattle that were responsible for defoliating the islands, and had introduced rats, cats, and dogs, which ate the eggs or young of native birds and reptiles.
“Weather is the other major factor, but now we’re getting out of my field,” Dave said. “I’d better let Tom cover that.”
Tom leapt right in.
“Every few years, El Niño causes the equatorial and atmospheric circulation patterns to reverse, bringing warm water and air from the western Pacific. Along with the warmth comes rain—a lot of rain. The rains moisten the dry lowlands, allowing vegetation to flourish. With food abundant, the terrestrial animals, such as iguanas and finches, do well. But at the same time, these changes inhibit the upwelling that enriches the Galápagos waters with nutrients. While terrestrial life flourishes, it is a catastrophe for marine life. Seabirds of all types are unable to raise their young and mortality is high among marine iguanas and fur seals there.”
They had only just arrived,