a Weber State College Comment, June 1986, page 6 Prof visits Chile, Galapag os Islands by Dr. Carl D. Marti professor of zoology he contrast was striking: as | swam in the Pacific Ocean pratically on _ the equator, people in Ogden were shoveling The Catholic University of Chile. snow. ' Later, I learned that while I watched sea lions watch me under the tropical surf, twelve inches of snow was falling at home. I was in the Galapagos Islands, 650 miles west of the South American coast in 80-degree weather... But, let me start at the beginning. Besides teaching zoology at the college, I enjoy “practicing” zoology as well. My zoological specialty is ecological studies on birds of prey. Several years ago, through professional channels, | became acqi ainted with Dr. Fabian Jaksic, a Chilean who teaches at the Catholic University of Chile. While he was a graduate student at the University of California at Berkely, we collaborated on a number of papers for professional journals concerning our common interest in the feeding habits of birds of prey. In 1983, we decided to ask the National Science Foundation to fund further study. NSF has a program called Science in Developing a Countries which provide funds for a U.S. scientist to collaborate with a counterpart in any of several developing countries. Fortunately, we were successful in obtaining this grant which enabled each of us to visit the other's country where we gave seminars, visited facilities, talked to each other’s students and, of course, continued our collaboration in ecological studies. sti — A particular goal of this program is to allow scientists from developing countries the use of library materials, computers and other facilities and equip- ment not available in their own A view of ; Santiago, Chile.-| countries. _ Inthe heat of August, 1984, I left Salt Lake City for my first visit to Chile. After 20 hours of travel (Chile is a long way south and further east than generally realized), I landed in Santiago. Late August is the end of winter there and the air was fairly cool. Santiago lies in the central valley of Chile and is situated, much like Ogden, at the base of a mountain range—the Andes. Santiago's climate is similar to that of Los Angeles. Decorative palm trees line the streets and citrus fruits grow there. Santiago is a large city (4 million people) and in many ways resembles a typical U.S. city ex- cept that all the signs are in Spanish. My second visit to Chile under this grant was timed to correspond with the 1985 Annual Meeting of the Chilean Biological Society where we would present the results of our cooperative analysis of hunting modes in birds of prey. Pucon, a small village in the eee 7 See er 400 miles south of Santiago. To get to Pucon, I| again flew to Santiago. From there, Fabian, his wife and I drove in caravan with another American zoologist, Dr. Stanley Fox, and his family, who was in Chile on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Catholic University. Also in the group was an American graduate student and his two assistants from the University of California at Berkeley in Chile to study lizards. Our route from Santiago followed the Pan American Highway most of the way. In Chile the Pan American Highway is a well maintained road with much less traffic than a major U.S. highway would have, making the drive an easy one. I had decided that on this second trip to South America | would visit the Galapagos Islands. These islands have been famous in biology since Charles Darwin visited there in 1835. So many things impotant to biologists, especially in ecology and evolu- | tion, are well illustrated by the fauna and flora of the Galapagos. Teachers of zoology find themselves using examples over and over from the Galapagos. I felt that it would be a serious mistake not to ex- perience this firsthand because I would be passing close by on my return home. Thus, after a long trip from Pucon, involving buses, several airlines and sleeping overnight in the Lima, Peru, airport, | arrived in Quito, Ecuador. Ecuador owns the Galapagos ad On weekends I had the opportunity to see some of the surrounding countryside, smaller towns, and areas where Fabian conducted his research on birds of prey. We also drove to the sea coast which is rugged and beautiful, much like that of Oregon. is about catering to vacationers. The setting is beautiful with Islands and all travel to and from them begins and ends there. a large lake on one side and a picturesque (and active) volcano rising behind. A little experience exploring Pucon’s streets, shops and cafes revealed that ing to see a little of Quito, the capital city. Situated in | a high valley of the Andes, the setting is very scenic. Pucon is a village of only a few thousand people Unfortunately, I had only one afternoon and even- the differences between city-dwellers and small-town Even though right on the equator, Quito’s climate is folks in Chile are much like those in the U.S. City people there are in a hurry and dealings with them tend to be brusque and impersonal. On the other very pleasant due to its 10,000 foot elevation. The next morning I took off on the daily flight to the Galapagos. The Archipelago De Colon, as it is officially hand, small town Chileans smile and greet you in alee Chile has many universities and a generally welleducated population. Their yearly schedule is a bit different from ours but the systems of higher education in the U.S. and Chile are basically similar. One problem for their students (and teachers) of science is that a high percentage of science texts and journals are published in English, requiring that they be bilingual at least in reading ability. of Chile, passing and the pace of life is leisurely. ad RNa ks education. lake district of southern Chile was the site of the meeting. Chile’s lake district, called the Switzerland Ia During my two-week visit I lived a somewhat typical Chilean city-dweller’s life. | say “somewhat” - because Fabian gets a late start on the day but works long into the night. The average Chilean seems to eat a light breakfast, lunch around noon, a snack called “onces” at six or seven in the evening and then a large dinner at nine or ten o'clock. By following Fabian’s daily schedule | gained interesting insights into daily life there and particularly into the system of higher ? One noticeable difference is the lack of very tall buildings—this is a region of frequent earthquakes. Another contrast was the presence of guards, armed with machine guns, around government buildings.