We review the conservation status of two small rail species breeding in the Galápagos Islands: the endemic Galápagos Rail Laterallus spilonota and the native Paint-billed Crake Neocrex erythrops, widely distributed on the South American mainland. Using distance sampling with point counts, we estimated population sizes across islands with suitable habitat from 2015 to 2025. In 2022, we reassessed long-term trends for the Galápagos Rail on Santa Cruz Island, following the monitoring protocol used in earlier censuses (1986, 2000, 2007). We estimated the Galápagos Rail population at 32,300 pairs across seven islands, including a small, newly recorded breeding population on Pinzón and Floreana, where we rediscovered the rail in 2025. Additional breeding populations of unknown size exist in the humid zones of the two northern volcanoes of Isabela and on adjacent Fernandina. The largest population, on Santiago (22,400 pairs), has recovered remarkably over 40 years since goats and other herbivores were eradicated. We found the Galápagos Rail predominantly in the humid highlands, although a few pairs were recorded in the mangrove forests of Isabela Island. The species is absent from San Cristóbal Island. On Santa Cruz it showed a clear increase between 2007 and 2022. The Paint-billed Crake breeds on the four inhabited islands (Floreana, Isabela, San Cristóbal, and Santa Cruz), with at least 6,300 pairs. It was mainly found in grasslands and open woodlands within agricultural areas at lower altitude than the Galápagos Rail, resulting in minimal range overlap. Its population and range have expanded, especially on Santa Cruz. The significantly higher recent population estimate for the Galápagos Rail compared with past estimates, along with positive trends on at least three islands, warrants reclassifying the species IUCN Red List status from “Vulnerable” to “Near Threatened”.

Like many other oceanic islands around the globe, environmental conditions, social circumstances and forces of globalization combine to challenge the sustainability of the Galapagos Archipelago of Ecuador. This paper describes a food-supply system in Galapagos that is mainly controlled by population growth, weak local agriculture, imports from mainland Ecuador and the influence of a growing tourism industry. We use system dynamics (SD) as a modeling technique in this paper to identify the main driving forces operating on the Galapagos food system to create a series of future scenarios and to examine the subsequent implications across the supply system structures. We model the supply side of the food system using secondary data collected from governmental and non-governmental sources. We find that the consumption profile of the local inhabitants of the Galapagos is on average higher than consumption in the Ecuadorian mainland. This fact, plus rapid growth of the local population fueled by the tourism industry, has created a decrease in per capita local food production and an increase on food import dependence that now, challenges the sustainability of the archipelago. Imports are the largest source of food in the archipelago. Approximately 75% of the agricultural food supply was transported from the mainland in 2017. Our model projects that this fraction will increase to 95% by 2037 with no changes in food policy. Moreover, any plan to increase tourism arrivals must be accompanied by a plan to address the subsistence needs of the new population that the tourism industry attracts. Policies to promote local agricultural growth should be central to the development strategy implemented in the Galapagos.

Two shark species, Odontaspis ferox and Centrophorus squamosus, are recorded for the first time at the Galápagos Islands based on one sighting reported by tourist divers and one specimen captured by a local fisherman. The identification of a third shark species, Mustelus albipinnis, previously unidentified and recorded as Mustelus sp., is achieved based on several sightings at the same location.

A video clip from the Galápagos Archipelago confirms the first recording of the smalltooth sandtiger shark, Odontaspis ferox, in these islands. Further sightings of this species in the eastern Pacific will likely follow, considering that other, relatively nearby islands lay within reach of the Equatorial Counter Current and North Equatorial Current, which connect some already reported sightings.

In 1995, a complete survey of the fish collection in the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) Museum (Galápagos Islands, Ecuador) was undertaken. Five specimens represented possible new records to the archipelago, but insufficient material was available at CDRS to confirm identification. On 5 November 2007, the specimens were removed from the CDRS fish collection under licence from the Parque Nacional Galápagos (PNG) on loan to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (LACM). Identification of all species was confirmed using comparative LACM voucher specimens, including X-rays, scientific keys and other resources, which were, at the time, unavailable to scientists at the CDRS. Four of the five specimens were incorrectly identified in 1995, the fifth, the golden trevally, Gnathodon speciosus, is the first confirmed record of this species for the Galápagos. One of the originally mis-identified specimens, the longnose anchovy (Anchoa nasus), proved to be A. ischana (sharpnose anchovy), and A. nasus can now be eliminated as a verified record from the islands. The first confirmed record of the sharp-tail mola, Masturus lanceolatus, for the archipelago is also presented based on photographic and video evidence. The first physical evidence of the white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Galápagos Archipelago based on discovery of a tooth and C14 analysis, is presented.

Intra-specific variation in social organization provides valuable insights into the selective forces driving social evolution. Sperm whales are distributed globally and live far from shore, thus obtaining large sample sizes on social organization in multiple areas is logistically challenging and few comparative studies exist. In order to address how ecological factors influence sociality, we investigated the social organization of sperm whales in the Gulf of California (GoC) using a long-term study (1998–2004) and compare our results to other published studies. Standard photo-identification and behavioural observation techniques were used. Group size was calculated from photographic mark–recaptures using a Petersen estimator. Social organization was investigated using SocProg 2.3. Mean typical group sizes in the GoC were similar to those in the Galápagos Islands, Chile and Seychelles (24.7, 24.8, 30.4 and 18 individuals respectively), but substantially larger than in the Sargasso Sea, Caribbean and northern Gulf of Mexico (12.0, 6.4 and 6.9 individuals respectively). Sperm whale social organization in the GoC best fitted a constant companion/casual acquaintance model, where permanent units sizes were 12.5 individuals and two units usually associated together to form a group. This structure is similar to the situation in the Galápagos Islands and Chile areas. However, groups were more stable in the GoC than in the South Pacific, as groups stayed together for periods of about 80 days versus about ten days in the Galápagos Islands and Chile. It is likely that differences in the social organization between the study areas in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were due to differences in predation pressure and/or food resources. We suggest that, site-specific ecological factors are likely to influence fundamental aspects of sperm whale social organization.

We report the finding of two coral species of the family Caryophylliidae (Caryophyllia diomedeae and C. quadragenaria) significantly north of their known distribution limit in the eastern Pacific, and a new record of the family for the same region (Goniocorella dumosa, previously known only for the western Pacific).

The Critically Endangered mangrove finch Cactospiza (=Camarhynchus) heliobates is now confined to Isabela Island in the Galápagos Islands and is exclusively found in mangrove forests. Formerly it occurred also on neighbouring Fernandina Island, but is apparently extinct there. The population size and ecology of the species was relatively unknown until 1994. We conducted surveys, habitat assessments and behavioural observations of the species between 1996 and 2000. Although Isabela Island has approximately 760 ha of mangrove forests, breeding was confirmed at only two sites, comprising 32 ha in total, on the north-western coast. Our estimate of the population in these two areas is 100 individuals. Additionally, 3–5 territories (which probably contained breeding individuals) were discovered on the south-eastern coast. A comparison of habitat parameters showed that tree height and amount of dead wood were significantly higher within than outside territories, and these are therefore likely to be important habitat components for this species. As considerable structural differences were detected between the two sites holding the main populations and all other mangrove stands on Isabela, it seems possible that the latter are sub-optimal habitat. We therefore conclude that one of the reasons for the very limited distribution of the species is habitat degradation caused by hitherto unknown factors.