Daphne Island

Daphne Major is a small volcanic island in the group of Daphne Islands, which belong to the Galápagos archipelago. It lies north of the main island of Santa Cruz and west of the island of Baltra, on which is the international airport of the archipelago. The treeless island consists essentially of an up to 120 m high tuff ring. Access to the island is severely restricted by the National Park Service and is used mainly for scientific purposes.

Peter and Rosemary Grant studied here over a period of 20 years, the so-called Darwin 's finches. They studied the behavior and life cycle of these finches. Their results support the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin.

On Daphne Major is home to a variety of birds, including blue-footed boobies, masked boobies, Galapagos horned owl, red-billed tropic bird, Prachtfregattvogel and crowned night herons.

Not far from Daphne Major is the even smaller island of Daphne Chica; together they form the Daphne Islands.