Desert Speaks

Giants On A Galapagos Island

This program visits one of the few inhabited islands in the Galapagos. Host David Yetman and ecologist Yar Petryszyn explore the people and culture of the island of Santa Cruz with a stroll through the market at Puerto Ayora. Then it's off to visit the Darwin Research Station and its famous saddle back tortoises, which are being reintroduced to the area after being hunted close to extinction. One of these tortoises, Diego, is named after the San Diego Zoo, which is home to a tortoise-breeding program. Other highlights include a look at land iguanas, which also faced extinction from hunting, and the tree prickly pear that stands taller than a 2-story house. Finally, the crew jumps on a old bus and ventures up the mountain to find volcanic craters, Scalisia forests, wild Galapagos Tortoises and Darwin Finches- the birds that led to Darwin's theory of evolution.