On Santa Cruz there are some small villages, whose inhabitants work in agriculture and cattle raising. This island is a large dormant volcano. It is estimated that there were eruptions around a million and a half years ago.<\/p>\n
As a testimony to its volcanic history there are two big holes formed by the collapse of a magma chamber, Media Luna and Los Gemelos.<\/p>\n
Named after the Holy Cross, its English name (Indefatigable) was given after a British vessel (HMS Indefatigable). Santa Cruz hosts the largest human population in the archipelago at the town of Puerto Ayora.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/is_santacruz.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Charles Darwin Research Station and the headquarters of the Gal\u00e1pagos National Park Service are located here. The GNPS and CDRS jointly operate a tortoise<\/a> breeding centre where these chelonians are prepared to be reintroduced to their natural habitat.<\/p>\n The Highlands of Santa Cruz offer an exuberant vegetation and are famous for the lava tunnels. Large populations of Giant Tortoises<\/a> are found here. Wild Tortoises roam free crashing through the mist covered guayabillo, pega pega, and grasses of the humid zone.<\/p>\n Flycatchers<\/a>, Finches<\/a> and Owls<\/a> fill the Scalesia Forests near Los Gremlos. Almost every bird found in the archipelago has been seen within the many life zones on Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n Black Turtle Cove is a site surrounded by mangroves which sea turtles<\/a>, rays<\/a> and small sharks<\/a> sometimes use as a mating area. Cerro Dragon, known for its flamingo<\/a> lagoon, is also located here and along the trail one may see Galapagos Land Iguanas<\/a> foraging.<\/p>\n More Galapagos islands:<\/p>\n Baltra (South Seymour)<\/a> Santa Cruz Island (Indefatigable), Galapagos Santa Cruz Island is situated in the centre of the archipelago with an area of 986 kilometres squared and a maximum altitude of 864 metres. It is a large island with a variety of geology, wildlife and vegetation, all of the Galapagos life zones are present on Santa Cruz. Santa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalcorner.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDaphne Major<\/a>
\nDarwin (Culpepper)<\/a>
\nEspanola (Hood)<\/a>
\nFernandina (Narborough)<\/a>
\nFloreana (Charles or Santa Mar\u00eda)<\/a>
\nGenovesa Island (Tower)<\/a>
\nIsabela (Albemarle)<\/a>
\nMarchena (Bindloe)<\/a>
\nNorth Seymour<\/a>
\nPinta (Abingdon)<\/a>
\nPinzon (Duncan)<\/a>
\nRabida (Jervis)<\/a>
\nSan Cristobal (Chatham)<\/a>
\nSanta Cruz (Indefatigable)<\/a>
\nSanta Fe (Barrington)<\/a>
\nSantiago (San Salvador, James)<\/a>
\nSouth Plaza<\/a>
\nWolf (Wenman)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"