Yeah! Right on, Syd. I just read the book and likewise was amazed by
the dedication and research done by the Grants. As a matter of fact,
I was so taken, that my wife and I are off to the Galapagos in
January for a short visit. I'm taking hydrophones and mics along with
us.
Bernie Krause
>Warning: This does not directly concern recording or sound though it might
>lead to some if I'm lucky.
>
>__________________________
>
>The first 100 pages of Pulitzer Prize winning "The Beak of the Finch" by
>Jonathon Weiner (1994, but I'm now reading it for the first time) is enough
>to convince me of its' being one of the most fascinating science-based books
>I've read.
>
>I guess I am not alone in associating Galapagos finches with Charles Darwin
>and his theory of evolution by natural selection, but without knowing any of
>the details. And no, I'm not going into that now. I write to quote
>something absolutely amazing about these finches.
>
>It concerns their fantastic ability to cope with the climatic extremes to
>which they are exposed. The El Nino effect (or lack of!) is greatly
>magnified it seems, and severe drought is common. But in '83, Galapagos
>experienced the El Nino of the century. Certainly the most rain on those
>islands in living memory.
>
>Lisle Gibbs was the 'lucky' one to experience that wet season, out of a
>succession of scientists studying the finches of Daphne Major Island. I now
>quote passages from the book:
>
> "Gibbs had vines growing up the tent poles, and he could see them
>growing from morning to noon and from noon to evening, a few centimetres per
>day.
>
> "The Croton trees flowered not just once or twice but as many as seven
>times, so each tree and bush set seven crops of seeds and every one a bumper
>crop. One Croton seed fell to the ground in December, and by May the plant
>was level with the eyes of a tall man, whereupon it burst into flower too."
>
>And the finches:
>
> " 'The birds went crazy,' Gibbs says. 'The year before there had been
>no breeding at all. Now they bred like hell.' On Daphne, females produced
>up to forty eggs and fledged twenty-five young. The most prolific pair on
>Genovesa laid twenty-nine eggs in seven clutches, and twenty fledglings
>hopped out of the nest.'
>
> "In the steamy rains more and more of the birds were turning bigamous
>or polygamous. On Genovesa one female finch went through four males, one
>after the other."
>
>Most finches don't breed until two years old and by then the researchers
>recognise them individually. But in this season they encountered banded
>breeders they didn't recognise:
>
> " 'Finally, we realised they were kids - three months old,' Gibbs says.
>The young birds they had banded in the first weeks, were pairing off and
>mating in the cactus bushes. No one on earth had ever reported anything
>like this: passerine birds are not supposed to breed in the same season they
>are born.
>
> "The youngest to breed was a *fortis* less than three months old. She
>laid four eggs in her first clutch, and two chicks survived to leave the
>nest."
>
>______________________
>
>The Galapagos Islands are so famous, it seem possible that someone may have
>produced a commercial CD, or audio cassette of the wildlife sounds. Does
>anyone know of such?
>
>Syd Curtis in Brisbane, Australia,
>
>
>
>
>
>
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--
Wild Sanctuary, Inc.
P. O. Box 536
Glen Ellen, CA 95442
707-996-6677 tel
707-996-0280 fax
http://www.wildsanctuary.com
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