change the critters that live on galapagos today face some serious challenges from humans. the two biggest ones are introduced species and climate change. goats were introduced on the big island a while ago. and wreaked absolute havoc with the ecosystem. the ecuadorians decided to remove them. heh. no easy task. goats are rather fecund. to say the least. tracking and poisoning didn't work. they resorted to snipers in helicopters. it was expensive. but the goats are gone now. there's no hope for removing rats. they're there to stay. rats discovered tortoise eggs are yummy things to eat. there's an intense program to keep the giant tortoises from vanishing. i think they're doomed. besides the rats there's temperature. the gender of a turtle depends on the temperature the eggs incubate. so as the planet warms there are fewer and fewer girl tortoises hatched in the wild. good thing there's already a program in place to replenish them in the wild. or maybe we're just interfering with natural selection. and the tortoises would figure it out on their own. or go extinct. the penguin fate is similarly precarious. the severe el ninos of the 80's reduced the penguin population from some 15k to some 500. they've recovered to some 2500 now. i watched a nature show on lions long ago. the new kings kill the cubs so they can breed with the pride females as often as possible before some younger stronger lion drives him off. the narrator explained that this is cruel and ghastly only in human terms. it's their way. i am thinking the human way is to kill all other creatures. either deliberately (for food) or indirectly (ignorance). and even as we mourn the passing of penguins and tortoises, we glory in life's miraculous ability to survive such an onslaught.  ¶ 8:59 AM