Galápagos Islands Field Course @ Charles Darwin Research Station

12–25 July 2025

Dr. Jim Costa and Dr. Kathy Mathews, Highlands Biological Station & Western Carolina University

Follow in the footsteps of Charles Darwin in this new and exciting field course! Offered in cooperation between WCU’s Highlands Biological Station and the Charles Darwin Research Station, this course is a field-based exploration of the iconic Galápagos Islands, land of giant tortoises, marine iguanas, equatorial penguins, and Darwin’s finches — the islands that helped inspire Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection! Emulating the Darwinian spirit, this course is all about field exploration, immersion in one of the most spectacular and evolutionarily interesting landscapes on earth in which we will learn principles of island evolution and geology, Galápagos natural and cultural history, and the unique conservation challenges faced by Galápagos and other oceanic islands. A centerpiece of the course will be hands-on experiential learning in which we will assist scientific staff of the Charles Darwin Foundation with several ongoing research and conservation projects, both marine and terrestrial.