Marine Iguanas, Espanola Island, Galápagos, Ecuador

All the wildlife I saw on the Galapagos in my Wildside Nature Tours Wildlife and Photo Adventure was completely unafraid of humans. On our first full day, we visited Espanola, a low, slanting, lava table with a large nesting colony of Nacza Boobies and other sea birds. And Marine Iguanas. Lots of Marine Iguanas. Often Marine Iguanas in the trail, where we had to climb around them. Always Marine Iguanas beside the trail. In breeding season, the males develop some interesting colors, though they mostly back or dark grey, which helps these cold-blooded animals to warm themselves in the sun when they are out of the water. They spend most of the day warming themselves. The waters around the Galapagos are cold, and Iguanas feed on algae beds deep under water. A single dive can require several hours of recovery in the sun. Of course…they may just enjoy baking in the hot equatorial sun. 

They sneeze a lot…and their heads are often encrusted with salt from the glands there that excrete the salt from the sea water they drink while feeding. They are big, they grow as big as the food supply allows…and Espanola has some really big Marine Iguanas. 

Sony Rx10iii, mostly at various focal lengths. Program Mode. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic on my iPad Pro.