[Music, singing & laughter]
RANDY MOORE: Our theme song. I’m Randy Moore in the Biology Program in CBS.
SEHOYA COTNER: I’m Sehoya Cotner in the Biology Program.
ANNE KELLERMAN: And my name is Anne Kellerman. I’m an undergraduate in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior.
RANDY MOORE: About a year ago, I returned from a trip to the Galápagos and was very impressed by the place, as most biologists are, and wanted to try to organize a trip for the University of Minnesota. I met with Sehoya. It culminated in the summer of 2008 with us taking two groups of students to the Galápagos.
SEHOYA COTNER: I think the thing that is so amazing about the Galápagos, especially for biology students, is that it’s sort of the culmination of all your classroom experiences. So many things we learn about in introductory biology like Darwin’s finches, or in behavioral ecology like the groove-billed anis or the Galápagos hawk, or in evolution with the tortoises. They’re all being played out in front of your eyes on the Galápagos.
RANDY MOORE: It’s very interesting for a biologist to be there. It is the most iconic place in our profession. Mendel’s greenhouses are probably a distant second, but everyone here is about the Galápagos. When you’re there, it’s biologically just overwhelming. We were told when we disembarked onto land the first time, “You’re going to see everything not in the first 200 yards or the first 20 yards—your first two steps.” And it’s true!
SEHOYA COTNER: Some days it took us about an hour to walk ten meters because of everything we were seeing.
ANNE KELLERMAN: I remember the first time we got on the boat and the frigatebird was floating overhead and then the first few steps that we took on our first island and there was a baby sea lion right there. We were told “You will see these animals right there. You will see them in vast numbers.” It’s hard to believe that until you actually see it.
RANDY MOORE: Something that makes a very big impression is what’s not there. There’s not the big hotel. There’s not the Burger King. There’s not even a trash can. It’s raw nature. And many biologists find that very liberating. We were snorkeling with penguins that were two feet away. They would come up to you and look in your mask and you realize that you’re not at the mall looking at a mechanical one or in some aquatic park with a drugged up animal. It’s the real thing in the middle of the ocean and you just kind of sit there and it’s very zen-like. You just kind of sit there and think “Wow”. This will be an annual—we hope it will be an annual event—to take 14 students to the Galápagos. We’re already scheduled for next year. Students wanting this kind of experience—and it’s a profound one—should contact Sehoya and I. We can give you details about being seasick. [Laughter] That’s the bad, all the way to the good of seeing things that you’ll never forget. [Music]
