As the trail along North Seymour Island moves away from shore, you will soon be greeted by an inland resident: the Galápagos land iguana. You will find them among the tan rocks at the base of prickly pear cacti (opuntia). This is their main source of food, water and shelter from the sun. The scientific name for this endemic creature is conolophus meaning spiny crest. How they arrived here is an interesting story. During the 1930s, oil baron George Allan Hancock commissioned five scientific voyages to the Galápagos. During the Hancock Expedition’s first visit to Baltra Island in 1932-33, they discovered the local land iguanas were dying off from non-native animals such as dogs and cats. So, they transplanted 70 of the reptiles to North Seymour. Lucky they did. Within two decades, the iguanas became extinct on Isla Baltra. During the 1990s, some North Seymour land iguanas were repatriated to Baltra where they are now beginning to thrive.
