Blue iguana

Scientific Name: Cyclura lewisi Animal Type: Reptile Location: Cayman Islands Conservation Status: Critically Endangered

Profile

 

This beautiful dragon-like lizard, endemic to the island of Grand Cayman and on the brink of extinction only ten years ago, has become a symbol of great pride for the island’s people.

With support from Durrell and other international partners, the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme has been successfully breeding the iguanas in captivity since 1990, and has begun reintroducing the animals into the wild. The recovery plan for the iguana aims to restore at least a thousand individuals to the wild at protected sites. In 2005 there were only five animals left in the wild – now there are over 200.

Blue iguanas have suffered hugely from the clearing of land that once supplied their needs – relatively low, open vegetation that provides sufficient light and warmth (forest canopy casts too much shade), enough native vegetation to ensure a continuous food supply, rocks to shelter and soil to nest in.

Females burrow into the soil, digging until they reach a depth that has exactly the right temperature and humidity for their eggs to incubate successfully. A female will lay up to twenty eggs – older females lay more than younger ones.

Once they hatch, the biggest predator for juvenile iguanas is snakes. But sadly it is humans and the alien species they bring with them that are the greatest threat to the giant adults, which can grow to a length of over five feet.

Last year, the conservation community in the Caribbean and around the world was shocked by a series of tragic events that seriously damaged attempts to save the blue iguana. Seven adult iguanas died in a horrific attack at the captive breeding centre, and a further two were later killed by a pack of feral dogs.

But the conservation programme continues. Education programmes have already made the people of the Cayman Islands immensely proud of their largest native animal, and are helping to reduce confusion with the commoner green iguana which has been introduced to the islands. The captive breeding project aims to rear 80 animals a year and more protected areas are being established to hold the growing population.
 

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