In a rare good news story, the once near extinct Grand Cayman blue iguana is making a comeback that has experts hoping for a complete recovery of the endangered species.
The Blue Iguana Recovery Program began in 2002, when there were only between 10 and 25 of these big lizards left on the island due to a variety of factors, including habitat loss and predation by domestic animals.
Since then, the project has increased the iguana population by more than 500 through captive breeding. Each iguana hatched lives a year or two in a breeding facility and then gets a health screening before being released.
Vets weigh and tag each lizard, and take fecal and blood samples for analysis. Once an animal is given a clean bill of health, it is ready for release into a reserve.
“We expect to reach our goal of 1,000 iguanas in managed protected areas in the wild in a few years,” said Fred Burton, Director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Program, in a press release.
“After that, we will monitor the iguanas to make sure they are reproducing in the numbers needed to maintain the wild population,” he added. “If we get positive results, we will have succeeded.”
Most of the lizards were released at the 625-acre Salina Reserve on the eastern side of the island, but this year, they are being introduced to a new area, the Collier Wilderness Reserve.
Juanita, a female released last year, mated with a male called Zarco, and made a nest containing eight or more eggs.
Burton received the ‘Blue Turtle’ award from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee in 2009 for his efforts to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.
