The face only a mother could love.

There are two species of iguanas on the Galapagos: land and marine. I'll cover the land iguanas in a later post. Now for the marine variety.

At first, as you approach the shoreline of black volcanic rocks, you start to notice that some of the rocks are moving.

These lizards feed on marine algae growing on the rocks just off shore. Being cold blooded, iguanas use the black volcanic rocks for warmth. They crowd into colonies, as you can see, to minimize energy and be close to their food supply. This leads to territorial behavior where the males (the larger more colorful specimens) stake out an area shared with several (smaller) females. To claim their territory, the males strut around nodding their heads -- kind of like a sports bar on Friday night.

Since there are several females associated with each dominate male, some younger and smaller males are left without a significant other. This fellow is either very desperate for companionship or needs glasses.

Since their diet consists of algae harvested from rocks in the surf, iguanas ingest salt water which they must expel once back on land. They do this by frequently spitting. The following clip captures a typical event.

The magic of the Galapagos is observing so many species up close and personal. The following clip shows the shoreline were you can walk among the marine iguanas, seal lions, wingless cormorants and and sally lightfoot crabs all mingling peacefully with each other and the occasional tourist.

I'll cover all these species in subsequent blogs. Stay tuned.