Brawling Brutes

Marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus hassi) - Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos National Park, Ecuador

 

I'm back from my travels and ready to share some images with everyone! The galapagos are full of charismatic and unique creatures, but for me the most emblematic of the fauna of the Galapagos has to be the marine iguana. These lizards can be found on the beaches of the different islands that make up the Galapagos. I was lucky to visit during the mating season and was fortunate enough to witness some territorial disputes. Each mature male maintained a territory, some of the more successful males had a large amount of females within their territories whereas others had few or none. The largest male iguana on the beach (individual on the left) had a territory with many females and was constantly facing down challengers. Sometimes just a show of intimidation would be enough to send away smaller males but at other times it was insufficient and a physical fight would ensue. The two males would butt heads and strain and push attempting to move their opponents backwards, if an iguana lost too much ground it would typically stand down and back off. The large male was challenged again and again and always seemed to come out on top, infact he had vanquished the smaller male on the right a number of times before this particular bout. However the challenger kept coming back again and again, this fight lasted longer than any of the others as the larger iguana must have been tired from fighting his other neighbors. He did eventually persevere and defeat the smaller male on the right yet again. Despite being bloodied neither of the iguanas seemed much worse for wear and retired back to their favorite basking spots in their respective neighboring territories.

Done