> Closely related finches notice and act on differences in repertoire, preferring to mate with individuals with a more familiar song; hence two different forms may emerge on the same island. As mockingbirds have a much more varied and flexible song and continually learn new snippets throughout life, two birds that live on the same island but sound completely different will still mate like they belong to the same species.

> The weather was not the only influence on the medium ground finches of Daphne Major. In the wake of the 1982–1983 El Niño, a few large ground finches reached the island for the first time. So when the next serious drought occurred in 2003–2004, the medium ground finches with the biggest beaks were unable to muscle in on the supply of larger seeds, and most of them died. The presence of two competing species effectively carried the average beak size in different directions, with that of the medium ground finch getting smaller and that of the large ground finch getting slightly larger still.

> In the hot season—from December to May—a marine iguana can afford to spend around an hour a day at sea. In the cool season though—from June to November—the same iguana will only be able to get warm enough to swim for around twenty minutes.

> Nowhere is this more evident than on Isabela’s Wolf Volcano. Here, geneticists have discovered hybrid tortoises with a wonderful diversity of genes, probably as a result of the activities of buccaneers and whalers moving these reptiles around in the not-so-distant past. Some of these hybrids show clear signs of recent San Cristóbal and Española ancestry. It also turns out that there are descendants of Floreana tortoises, a species that nobody has seen for more than 150 years.

> Although the Galápagos is notable for its paucity of land-based mammals, it seems that some kind of rodent reached the archipelago long before humans, giving rise to at least a dozen endemic species, collectively known as the Galápagos rice rats. ( )

I found this a reasonable overview of the history, geology, flora and fauna of the Galapagos Islands, with some prim comments toward the end about how humans have corrupted the island ecosystem. A bit plodding. ( )

This is a fascinating book about the Galapagos Islands, covering their history, geology and amazingly diverse speciation. The Galapagos are an archipelago of volcanic islands that contain an enormous amount of endemic species. This book details early voyages that either incidentally or purposefully visited and began exploration of these islands, including Darwin’s visit. It discusses the plant and animal life on these islands through which it is easy to see the mechanisms of evolution at play including natural selection, speciation, and convergent evolution. Henry Nicholls discusses the impact of humans and introduced species to these islands and what has been done to try to protect the islands from harm. Amazingly, these are some of the most well preserved islands in the world, but continued efforts are necessary to maintain their integrity especially with the rise of tourism. This is a great overview of the history of the Galapagos. It is well written and very informational. This is actually a book I would enjoy reading or listening to again. I would recommend it to people who plan to visit the area or simply have a scientific curiosity about this area of the world. ( )