Galapagos paid the price for successful tourism development

Mosquitoes carrying many deadly diseases threaten the rare and endangered animals of the Galapagos Islands that are invading the region every day through travel flights.

Culex quinquefasciatus has been thought to have infiltrated the Galapagos Islands during a rare event in the 1980s. However, scientists from Leeds University, Hiep The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the University of Guayaquil, the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation, have shown that this mosquito regularly moves from the continent to the Galapagos and is currently growing rapidly. on Galapagos Islands.

Illegal passengers of these travel aircraft also follow ships moving between islands, meaning mosquito-borne diseases are capable of spreading to the entire archipelago.

Arnaud Bataille, a doctoral student, a member of the science team, said: ' Our research includes finding mosquitoes on the aircraft compartment and conducting genetic analysis of mosquitoes on the island. The first is to determine the mosquito penetration rate through travel flights, while the second one allows us to estimate how many mosquitoes existed and spread among the islands when it arrived. Galapagos. On average, the number of mosquitoes per flight is very low, but there are many aircraft landing each day to serve tourists, and once they reach here, the mosquitoes are able to survive and reproduce well. on the islands ".

Galapagos Islands. (Photo: Devisland)

Southern mosquitoes are intermediate hosts that transmit many dangerous diseases such as malaria and smallpox in birds, or West Nile virus fever. The invasion of this mosquito on the island of Hawaii at the end of the nineteenth century caused terrible damage to the island's typical birds.Only 19 of the 42 rare Hawaiian birds now exist, and mosquito-borne mosquito-borne diseases are the main culprits.

Andrew Cunningham, senior officer at the London Animal Protection Association, co-authored the study, said: 'Their research suggests that a similar catastrophe may occur in the Galapagos Islands. Unless strong and immediate measures are taken, sooner or later the Galapagos wildlife will suffer the same fate as the birds on the island of Hawaii. '

Tourism is the main source of income for the Galapagos Islands, providing a rich source of funding for the National Park and the Galapagos Marine Conservation Authority - units that protect wildlife in the islands.

The new study shows the reality: the price of tourism can even outweigh the benefits it brings if the risk from these pathogens remains unregulated.

'It is very rare for tourists to realize the pain that their trip to Galapagos really increases the risk of an ecological disaster on the islands,' Simon Goodman from Leeds University, one of the authors. study, say.

'It is fortunate that we do not have to see the great effects of mosquito-borne diseases on the Galapagos Islands. The Ecuadorian government recently requested that all planes to Galapagos be subject to insect repellent treatment, but the effect of this has not yet been assessed specifically, and similar measures for ships Water also needs to be deployed soon. With the tourism industry growing rapidly, Galapagos 'future depends on its ability to maintain strict ecological security measures from the Ecuadorian government.'