Wikipedia Trail: Galápagos Islands to the House Sparrow

(North Seymour Island; web source, Wikipedia)

1. In her introduction, a fellow Mythology and Folklore student, Kasandra Schemel talked about visiting the Galápagos Islands when she lived in Ecuador. I have always loved to travel and see beautiful places, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to explore another area that I may want to add to my “must see” list. I learned that the official name is Archipiélago de Colón. I also read that the islands are recognized for a number of endemic species that happened to be studied by Charles Darwin and subsequently contributed to the creation of Darwin’s theory of evolution! This was of particular interest to me, as I started my college “career” as a biology student and even now, as a biological anthropology student, my studies are pretty grounded in biology. So, I chose to click on “endemic species” and jump over to the Wiki page about “endemism”.

2. An endemic creature is one that is unique to a specific location or habitat type. If a species can be found in multiple habitats or geographic area, it is not considered endemic. Endemic animals are also known as precinctive animals. I then chose to explore the opposite of endemism.

3. Cosmopolitan distribution refers to a group of organisms that can be found across all or most of the world, within appropriate habitats. Cosmopolitan distribution can be applied to a species or a subspecies and many factors, such as temporal variations may be taken into account when considering whether a species falls within this definition or not. Next, I chose to jump over and learn about a specific species that falls within cosmopolitan distribution; house sparrow.

4. You are more than likely familiar with this species. The house sparrow is a very common bird seen all over the world. I know I have seen sparrows quite frequently in different parts of Oklahoma (although I can't be 100% certain that I've ever actually seen the "house" sparrow subspecies). I learned that the males are typically a bit more colorful, as are the younger birds in the species (fun fact, that’s a pattern I’ve noticed among a good portion of the birds around the world)! Another not so surprising fact about these birds is that one of its major predators is the domestic cat. Something that may be slightly more shocking though, is that there are other predatory birds out there that have deemed the house sparrow as valuable prey. 

(Male house sparrow; web source, Wikipedia)