Ouch

One of the harder days ive had on pinta today. J & I went to the far northwest corner to map cactus and it was very thick, mean vegetation. Sleep well tonight.

Halfway Day

We are halfway done now and im feeling pretty good about data collection. Mapping lots of cacti and our observations of torts will be very useful for modeling.

Some Relaxing

A good day off: washing clothes, entering data, and helping john to build a sweet solar power station that will protect it from the coming rain.

Resupply

The boat comes next week to resupply our water, plenty of food this time. It's a relief not to have to worry and to go to bed with a full belly each night!

tortoises impacts 2011

Just to follow up on Elizabeth's comments about tortoises having large impacts in the small areas into which they settle ... here is an example. We spotted this site on the way up the volcano on the first day in the field on a trip up to scan the airwaves for tortoises. Clearly tortoises impact the vegetation in significant ways. Obviously an island-wide effect will require more tortoises but so far so good. - James

Wilman

Wilman continues to hang around. We leave him cactus offerings in the hopes that he wont destroy our camp with his wanderings. So far he is appeased.

Vegetation changes

From the tortoises we have so far been able to find, it seems that they are settling into home ranges with substantial impact to vegetation in small areas.

Messages

The satellite texter seems to be working well, except that many of our parents have not responded to our messages. Moms and dads, check your spam folders for a message from GeoPro!

Dolphins

There are hundreds of dolphins right off our beach! Must be a big school of fish as they have been here a couple of hours, jumping and splashing.

Wilman

Wilman has spent the past couple of days next to the water containers. Can he smell the water? He finally moved off this evening, disappointed maybe.

Lava lizards

Our lava lizard camp friends are still here! Lizzy still likes to eat the flies we swat and the one with the crooked tail is still being harassed by the females.