A conservation success story: the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana

A couple of months ago I posted on the Green Antilles Facebook page about the recovery of Blue Iguana populations in the Cayman Islands:

One Caribbean species, the Blue Iguana of Grand Cayman island, found nowhere else in the world, is looking like that rarest of things, a threatened species roaring back from the brink. Once down to perhaps fewer than a dozen animals, the long-tailed lizards, some growing to 5 feet and weighing 30 pounds, now number about 500, suggests a tally from a weeklong health screening that ended July 3.

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At the health screening, which checked out captive-grown lizards prior to their release, “I saw more blue iguanas in one day than the entire species possessed less than a decade ago,” Calle says. “It is a remarkable turnaround.”

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Within two years, the project estimates the iguana’s numbers will top 1,000, the target set for their recovery almost a decade ago. …[E]veryone on Grand Cayman, which is just south of Cuba, knows about blue iguanas now, which should make such efforts easier, Burton says. “They are quite the mascot of the island. We have stores named after them and cruise ships stop to see them. I think everyone here is quite proud of them.”

Now, a recent article from the L.A. Times reports on how iguana conservation efforts based outside of the Caymans are also achieving success:

A baby boom is underway at the San Diego Zoo among the Grand Cayman blue iguanas, one of the world’s most endangered lizards.

Since 2007, the zoo has been part of an international effort to save the blue iguana. Despite elaborate efforts at providing the right environment, results have been modest: three or four hatchlings a year.

But in the past week, nine blue iguana hatchlings were reported at the zoo’s Anne and Kenneth Griffin Reptile Conservation Center.

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Blue iguanas hatched at the San Diego Zoo have been sent to zoos throughout the United States to produce more of the species. Two will be shipped soon to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Fla.

The two breeding females and their mates will remain in San Diego, an insurance policy in case the Grand Cayman population nose-dives despite measures taken by the government there to protect the iguana, including a 200-acre sanctuary zone.

Follow the links above the read the full articles.

[Photo: Pete Markham]

Tags: cayman islands