810-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 15,1986
Wildlife Warns Of Dangerous Weather
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS,
Ecuador - In an age of high
altitude weather satellites and
deep-sea oceanography, scientists
here are paying close attention to
what ancient land iguanas and sea
snakes are saying.
And what the reptiles and other
aboriginal animals on these
primordial Pacific islands may be
saying - in language only they
really understand - is that
unusually bad weather is coming.
The reason is that a startling
number of animals here began
mating and breeding months
earlier than normal this year.
Since heavy rains and storms
would disrupt normal nesting
patterns, naturalists say the
animals may be anticipating harsh
weather ahead.
Wild Changes
Indeed, some naturalists believe
the early breeding is an early
warning of another El Nino, the
periodic warming of the equatorial
Pacific that leads to wild and
sometimes catastrophic changes
in climate.
“Something is wrong,” says
Maria Laura Patino, a Galapagos
National Park naturalist guide
who is studying the animal
behavior. “We think it could be El
Nino.”
If the theory is valid, it wouldn’t
be the first time that the endemic
animals on these famed volcanic
islands 600 miles off the Ecuador
mainland have helped teach man
the laws of nature.
Scientists say the early breeding
may be an inbred response to
minute environmental changes.
Water in the central Pacific has
been warmer than usual this
summer and fall. And warm dry
winds have blown from the
northwest, instead of the usual cold
“garua" drizzle that blows in from
the southeast.
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“Those animals are indeed
feeling the warmer water,” says
Gene Rasmusson, who is
monitoring the ocean changes at
the Cooperative Institute of
Climate Studies at the University
of Maryland. “Many of these
critters are cold-blooded, like the
iguanas, and are very, very sen
sitive to temperature changes.”
Galapagos land iguanas usually
breed in January. By September
this year, dozens of the large,
leathery lizards already were
golden yellow on their short feet
and spiny necks and were fighting
for food and territory.
“They were beginning to breed,”
says Ms. Patino, pointing out
several golden-tinged iguanas
sunning near tall prickly-pear
cactus on South Plaza, one of 13
large islands in the archipelago.
“That is unpossible.”
Equally unlikely, she says,
marine iguanas and green sea
turtles began breeding early last
summer, months before their
usual mating season, around
Espanola and other islands.
Similarly, sea snakes typically
seen only in January and February
were abundant in August. And
finches began building nests on
Floriana Island months early.
Any help predicting an im
pending El Nino, a Spanish
reference to the Christ Child
because the storms usually arrive
around Christmas, would be
welcome.
Despite satellites and com
puters, scientists failed to predict
the last El Nino, which wreaked
havoc across three-fourths of the
globe for eight months in 1982 and
1983 and was the worst natural
catastrophe in a century.
Torrential rains, mud slides, and
destructive tides devastated
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communities from California to
Peru. Typhoons and floods socked
Southeast Asia. Record droughts
hit Australia and southern Africa.
More than 800 people died, and
damage totaled $8 billion.
Although still little understood,
the 1982-83 El Nino started when
easterly Pacific trade winds failed,
allowing warm water to remain
near the surface. Cold, nutrient
rich water usually carried north
along the South American coast by
the Humboldt Current stayed deep.
Fierce storms spun off as the
warming ocean pumped enormous
amounts of extra heat and
moisture into the air.
Galapagos Case
Study
The Galapagos quickly became a
case study for El Nino’s effects,
according to a recent 534-page
study by the Charles Darwin
Foundation for the Galapagos
Islands, an internationally sup
ported, nonprofit scientific
foundation.
Thousands of sea lions and fur
seals, colonies of-sea birds like
blue-footed boobies and
albatrosses, as well as penguins,
marine iguanas, green sea ur
chins, and other fauna starved to
death as the ocean heated to 10
degrees C higher than normal, the
report said.
“The whole marine food chain
collapsed,” explains Ramon
Andrade, a spokesman for the
foundation’s Darwin Research
Station in Puerto Ayora on Santa
Cruz Island. “The worst thing was
there was almost no nesting.
Wildlife couldn’t afford to breed.
There was almost no food.”
Centuries-old coral reefs died in
weeks. “To get back the numbers
of coral we had before will take
hundreds of years,” says Rodrigo
Jacome, another naturalist guide.
And while there was no food in
Galapagos Islands. Unseasonably early mating by animals on
the islands this year have led naturalists to fear a return of El
Nino, the periodic warming of the equatorial Pacific that leads
to wild and sometimes catastrophic changes in climate.
the sea, there was too much on
land. More rain fell on the
Galapagos in six weeks than in a
normal six years. In all, 130 inches
of rain - more than 13 times
normal levels - drenched the
usually arid islands, the report
said.
Thick shrubs, vines, and grasses
flourished on lifeless lava. The
population of finches and frigate
birds, fire ants and mosquitoes,
feral pigs and goats, and other land
animals exploded amid the sudden
bounty.
Even the giant land tortoises,
those remarkable reptiles that
grow to 600 pounds and live to 200
years (and gave the islands their
name: “Galapago’ means tortoise
in Spanish), were affected.
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“The Nino left a distinctive ring
on every juvenile tortoise’s shell,”
indicating a spurt of growth from
the easy access to food, says Tom
Fritts, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service biologist studying en
dangered species here.
He says heavy storm systems
like El Nino thus may be crucial
for long-term survival of the
tortoises and other species. “It
may be very important to the
diversity of the Galapagos,” he
says.
today, after a two-year drought,
most of the affected species are
regaining their former members.
But scientists are hoping that the
iguanas and finches haven't
finished teaching
“We still have much to learn
here,” says Andrade
// ~/J~S6
Spurt Of
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