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A feral dog wanders the streets of Santa Rosa, Ecuador in the Galapagos, outside the highland grounds where giant tortoises feed on Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Alie Skowronski)The non-native animals are a special threat to the giant tortoises closely associated with the Galapagos. The tortoises declined dramatically in the 19th century due to hunting and poaching, and authorities have worked to protect them from humans. It’s been illegal to kill a giant tortoise since 1933.

“In one night, a feral pig can destroy all nesting sites in an area,” Carrión said. Park rangers try to visit areas with nesting sites once a day, and kill pigs when they find them. But the pigs are elusive, Carrion said.Feral cats feed on marine iguana hatchings, and both pigs and cats compete for food with the tortoises.A Pacific green sea turtle swims near Fernandina Island, Ecuador in the Galapagos on Saturday, June 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Alie Skowronski)

A Pacific green sea turtle swims near Fernandina Island, Ecuador in the Galapagos on Saturday, June 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Alie Skowronski)If invasive species and warming oceans weren’t enough, there’s the

reported microplastics in the bellies of Galapagos penguins.

“There are no animals in the Galapagos that do not have microplastics in their food,” Carrión said.The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1, and the county has some new weapons this season, including a brand-new emergency operations center and a new seawater desalination water treatment plant. The county also relies on surveillance flights from hurricane-hunting aircraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for information about how to prepare.

But, the potential for a catastrophic storm likein 2017 is always at the back of residents’ minds. The Category 4 storm made landfall in the Florida Keys with winds up to 132 mph (209.2 kph), destroying around 1,180 homes and seriously damaging another 3,000.

Weiner recently talked to the Associated Press about the upcoming hurricane season. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Weiner: Our entire island chain is surrounded by water. We have more water than we do land mass. Being uniquely situated between the two large bodies of water makes us very vulnerable. We see storms early, sometimes in their formation — storms that come across the Atlantic and then storms that develop in the south, in the Caribbean Sea. We tend to be in their path, and so we get a lot of storm practice here in Monroe County.