Chance of complete recovery
July 2011: While thousands of species are threatened with extinction around the globe, efforts to save the Grand Cayman blue iguana represent a rarity in conservation: a chance for complete recovery according to experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme - a consortium of local and international partners - has successfully released more than 500 captive-bred reptiles since the initiative's inception in 2002, when the wild population of iguanas numbered less than two dozen.
‘For the past several years, we've succeeded in adding hundreds of animals to the wild population, all of which receive a health screening before release,' said Dr Paul Calle, director of zoological health for WCS's Bronx Zoo.
We expect to reach our goal of 1,000 iguanas
Fred Burton, director of the recovery programme, said: ‘We expect to reach our goal of 1,000 iguanas in managed protected areas in the wild in a few years. After that, we will monitor the iguanas to make sure they are reproducing in the numbers needed to maintain the wild population. If we get positive results, we will have succeeded.'
The Grand Cayman blue iguana is the largest native species of its namesake island, growing to more than 5ft in length and sometimes weighing more than 25lb. The iguana formerly ranged over most of the island's coastal areas and the dry shrub lands of the interior before becoming endangered by a combination of habitat destruction, car-related mortality, and predation by introduced dogs and cats. The entire island's wild population in 2002 was estimated at between ten and 25 individuals.
Recovery efforts to save the Grand Cayman blue iguana have mostly centered on the Salina Reserve, a 625-acre nature reserve located on the eastern side of the island. After being hatched and raised for a year or two in a captive breeding facility, each iguana receives a complete health assessment before release. This involves veterinarians taking blood and fecal samples for analysis, as well as weighing and tagging each reptile.
This year, the recovery programme is releasing iguanas into a new protected area, the Colliers Wilderness Reserve, established last year and managed by the National Trust for the Cayman Islands.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/cayman-iguana.html#cr
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