The Wolf volcano, located in the Ecuadorian archipelago of Galapagos, and where the pink iguanas, unique in the world, started a new process of eruption, reported this morning the Directorate of the Galapagos National Park.
On its Twitter account, the institution posted a photograph of the event, which was captured by the park rangers.
The pink iguanas (Conolophus marthae), a unique species in the world, inhabit this volcano, located on Isabela Island, where they share a habitat with yellow iguanas and giant tortoises (Chelonoidis becky).
Neither the Galapagos National Park nor the Ministry of the Environment have reported yet whether the eruption has affected the species, and neither has the Ministry of Tourism notified whether the process represents any risk to operations.
The first record of a volcano eruption was in 1797. El Wolf is the highest volcano in the archipelago, with 1,707 meters above sea level and one of the five active volcanoes that Isabela Island has, along with Sierra Negra, Cerro Azul , Alcedo and Darwin.
The Wolf volcano is not located near an inhabited area and does not pose a risk to the human population.
According to the Geophysical Institute, from 0020 local time (07:20 GMT) you can see a cloud of gas and ash that reach heights between 3,793 meters above sea level to the northeast and 1,943 meters above sea level to the west.
“There are no populations near the volcano or in the direction of the ash clouds.”
Conservation
Last August, experts from different organizations analyzed strategies aimed at the conservation of the pink iguana, a rare species that usually inhabits 1,500 meters above sea level and whose behavior or threats it faces are hardly known.
The Galapagos National Park Directorate (PNG), Galapagos Conservancy, Island Conservation and Re: Wild participated in the analysis.
After the last census carried out at the beginning of last August, a population of 211 pink iguanas was calculated at the Wolf volcano, although 53 were located and captured, 94% of which lived above 1,500 meters above sea level.
Among the first actions of the conservation plan are the gathering of information, the construction of a permanent hut on the volcano and the control of predatory introduced species.
Experts consider it vital to identify when and where pink iguanas nest.
Last August, Washington Tapia, Conservation Director of the Galapagos Conservancy, indicated that “being restricted to a single site makes the species more vulnerable, considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to be critically endangered. “.
The Galapagos Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean regarding a thousand kilometers west of the continental coasts of Ecuador, were declared a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978, thanks to their rich terrestrial and marine biodiversity, where many unique species live in the world.
This archipelago, whose name is due to the giant tortoises that inhabit it, is made up of 13 large islands, 6 smaller and 42 islets, and is considered a natural laboratory that allowed the English scientist Charles Darwin to develop his theory on the evolution and natural selection of species.
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