How did all the plants and animals get there?

How did all of the Plants and Animals get way out there on those little islands in the middle of the ocean?

That is a great question!!! Scientists have some ideas about how this happened.

OK ... imagine that there is this big rock in the middle of the ocean and nothing is living on it. Who would want to live there? And would they be able to live there anyway?

Scientists answer these questions by telling some stories (called "theories") of how it probably happened. Some sea birds that eat fish might fly over from the mainland and eat fish. Also seeds from plants might come by flying through the air (some seeds can travel for huge distances like this). Once they got to Galapagos, they might find a way to survive.

Other seeds probably floated along with the ocean, finally landing on the islands. Some seeds probably came inside the stomachs of birds. The bird ate some fruit or seed on the mainland, flew out to the islands, and then pooped it out on the island. The fish, sharks, sea turtles, and sea lions could swim out there without too much problem, and the iguanas and small rodents probably came over on floating logs or rafts made of sticks, mud, and grass.

Then, once these plants and animals got there, some of them survived and others didn't. That seems to be the way that nature works.

All of this may sound like a crazy story, but scientists have a lot of evidence that makes it easier to believe that this was probably how the plants and animals got to the islands.

Oh, yeah ... one more really important thing. Some plants and animals got to the islands because people brought them on their boats. And some of them have become a big problem for the plants animals already here. For example, people brought goats for food and some rats some species hid on ships and then came on to the islands.  Soon the goats were destroying the habitat of the giant tortoises and the rats are eating the tortoise eggs. Blackberry plants were also brought for food but they grow so fast and very close together so that other native plants cannot grow where blackberry plants grow. The Charles Darwin Research Station works very hard with the Galapagos National Park Service to get rid of these "invasive" plants and animals so that the native ones have a better chance to survive!!!