We are in the process of uploading new camera-trap images from remote Wolf Volcano—featuring giant tortoises, yellow iguanas, and critically endangered pink iguanas— they will soon be available for you to explore and help classify! Thanks for your patience.
Also, this project recently migrated onto Zooniverse’s new architecture. For details, see here.
Research
Restoring the Pink Iguana
The Galápagos Initiative is a collaborative effort of the Galápagos National Park Directorate and Galápagos Conservancy to restore giant tortoises and land iguanas to their historical distribution and abundance across the archipelago. A current focus of the initiative is now Wolf Volcano, the northernmost major volcano on Isabela Island, the largest island in the archipelago on its western side.
The Galápagos Conservancy conservation team, along with park rangers, works at 1,700 meters on Wolf Volcano on conservation efforts for the pink iguanas. ©Galápagos Conservancy
Wolf Volcano is home to 10,000 giant tortoises and a large but unknown population of yellow land iguanas, as well as a fascinating and newly discovered species of iguana that is highly endangered and that we know very little about…the pink iguana.
Amidst the rainy season, a pink iguana is spotted feeding atop Wolf Volcano, taking full advantage of the plentiful food. ©Galápagos Conservancy
The Galápagos National Park is eager to determine how many pink iguanas there are, when and where the occur, and how they interact with the yellow iguanas and giant tortoises, as well as the many other kinds of wildlife present.
A variety of endemic wildlife occur on Wolf Volcano, including about 10,000 individuals of the Wolf Volcano giant tortoise, the pink and yellow iguanas, and a thriving population of Darwin's flycatcher, a songbird dependent in part on the tortoises and iguanas.
More significantly we need to know what threats the pink iguana is facing and whether or not the species is reproducing. We suspect feral cats are the primary threat -- knowing when and where cats occur will be very helpful. Same for the black rats.
The two nemeses of the pink iguana - black rats and feral cats, both introduced to the volcano long ago. For decades the cats and rats have apparently consumed nearly every pink iguana hatchling produced.
It is particularly critical to know if there is any reproduction by the pink iguanas, which would be evidenced by the appearance of juvenile pink iguanas.
Image of the first pink iguana hatchling ever encountered.
To answer these questions 70 remote cameras are currently placed across the rim of the volcano, down its inner flanks, and on its crater floor, all within the small area that encompasses the entire known range of the pink iguana.
Maintenance work is underway as memory cards are replaced and the camera trap network on Wolf Volcano is reactivated. ©Galápagos Conservancy
The cameras have been running around the clock for two years documenting "which species occur where and when." This is a very remote area few have ever visited, and most of what you see in these images has never been seen before.
You can see here the work of our conservation team on Wolf - securing the images presented here:
One of the reasons few visit Wolf Volcano is, in addition to the volcano’s formidable terrain, it is also active, but on the south side opposite of where our cameras are placed.
Park rangers can be observed scaling the steep cliffs of Wolf Volcano in search of pink iguanas. ©Galápagos Conservancy
This project!
We need your help counting pink iguanas, yellow iguanas, giant tortoises, and other wildlife, including feral cats and black rats, captured by these cameras, and searching for young pink iguanas. Around Wolf Volcano, 70 motion-activated camera traps are monitoring key locations, recording pink iguanas, yellow land iguanas, giant tortoises, rats, cats, and other wildlife, day and night. These cameras are generating tens of thousands of images, far more than our small research team can review alone. By helping classify what you see in these photos -- “pink iguana,” “yellow iguana,” “rat,” “cat,” “empty,” and more -- you can become part of the conservation team working on the slopes of this active Galápagos volcano and directly support the science needed to save the pink iguana. Your observations will help us locate nesting sites, measure where and how often rats and cats in the iguanas' nesting areas, and track how these reptiles use the landscape through the breeding season, and help identify whether the pink iguanas are reproducing. We are also interested in knowing which other wildlife present are associated with the reptiles on the volcano. You might also see and note new species not before seen on Wolf Volcano. Together, we can transform the raw images into the knowledge the Galápagos National Park needs to protect pink iguanas.
More about this project
This is a project of the Galápagos Conservancy, the Galapagos National Park Directorate, and SUNY-ESF.
Stay informed about the Galapagos Initiative and other conservation efforts in the Galápagos Islands by subscribing to Galápagos Conservancy’s email list
Support conservation efforts in the Galapagos Islands with a tax-deductible (for US residents) [donation to Galapagos Conservancy today]
(https://www.galapagos.org/give/#ways-to-give)