Mating Rituals

The four of us, Bill, Della, Jennifer, and I, took a land tour of North Seymour island a few days.  Located a few miles off the airport-island of Baltra, itself located few hundred yareds north of the Galapagos island of Santa Cruz, North Seymouyr is part of the Galapagos National Park.  As a result, we were required to viti the island in the company of a guide.  Our guide was a 28-year old native Santa Cruzan, Jairo.  He had a degree in Linguisics, and spoke excellent English, and was a delightful guide to the islan`s many mating rituals.

One of the "signature" animals of these islands is the blue-footed boobie.  T-shirts abound with the predictable plays on words, and the birds are relatively common around the rocky shorelines.  Most spectacularly, they can be seen diving into the water for the fish they live on, their big bodies transforming into sleek missles just inches above the water as the penetrate missile-like to catch (spear?) their prey.  Less visible, their mating rituals are as curious as their hunting techniques are unstoppable.

The male boobie, in seeking to court a mate, will circle the female ritually, lefiting first one foot and then the other, in an elaborate show of one-leggedness.  Actually, according to Jairo, the male is being judged on the quality and symetry of its feet.  From time to time, the male will open its wings and lift its head skyward, as if to say, "Enough already!"  We asked Jairo how long the mating dance lasts, and he replied, wryly, "As long as the female wants."  We circumnavigated this pair over the course of 30 minutes, and he was still at it as we left them to their privacy.

The frigate birds are the predatory vultures of the open sea, with wingspans that can exceed 6 feet.  Large, black with a forked tail that makes them look like Batman`s emblem, these birds were all over the Islas des Perles off Panama, and can be seen by sailors well out to sea.  They steal food from other birds, and sit at the near-top of the food chain.  Here´s a picture of a chick, just a few days old.  As many of you may know, the absolutre protection afforded Galapagos animals has rendered them fearless of humans, to them, we`re a harmless species that sometimes hovers nearby and emits clicks from a neck-strapped camera.

The male frigate bird has an enormous red pouch it inflates during mating season.  According to Jairom, femal frigates are less impressed with the pouch (which may be more to assert themselves to other males), and more impressed by the quality of the male´s nest, which he has built prior to courtship.  It`s the house, not the feet or the bulbous neck.  We were fortunate to see one of these in flight with its pouch puffed, a sort of frigate strut through the dance hall, flexing its proverbial muscles for all to see.

Later on our walk, we spot some large land iguanas.  They eat from the cactus, so in this Darwinian place, Jairo explains that on those islands populated with iguanas, the cactii grow taller than on the other islands, thust protecting themselves against the death of a thousands small bites.

We ended up at a small lagoon, populated by a small flock of pink flamingos.  These curious creatures -- the stuff of lawn legend -- walk with legs that are jointed backwards, the better to make their wading way through shallows.  Their beaks are particularly well-suited to root out the small crustaceans that make up their diet, from which their pink color derives.  They can fly, if awkwardly.

North Seymour is a small island; we completed our walk in about an hour.  But it`s filled with more mini-dramas than a teen club dance.  I only hope that blue-footed boobie got an answere, eventually.  My memories of my 7th grade dances are too vivid for me not to feel just a little bit sorry for the bobbing boobie.