Anegada Iguana
Last modified:
September 26, 2006, 1:17 AM
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IIF provides critical support for Anegada iguana recovery project The Anegada iguana is the most genetically and morphologically unique species of rock iguana, and among the most endangered. It is native only to the remote island of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands. With fewer than 300 individuals remaining, the Anegada iguana is one of the rarest lizards in the world.
Increasing pressures from people and their domestic animals are the primary threats to the Anegada iguana. Land clearing destroys habitat, feral livestock (including cattle, donkeys, and goats) trample nest sites and severely over-browse native vegetation that iguanas rely on for food, and feral cats kill nearly all hatchlings each year. As a result, the iguana population on Anegada has been declining for decades and now occupies only a small fraction of the island and consists almost entirely of aging adults.
To combat this problem and prevent extinction in the short-term, the Anegada iguana recovery project initiated a headstarting program in 1997 to increase population recruitment. Each summer the nests of wild females are located and protected, and each fall the hatchlings emerging from these nests are transferred to a captive facility on Anegada where they are raised until large enough to survive in the wild with cats.
  
Since 2003, and with funding from the IIF, 72 headstarted iguanas have been returned to the wild on Anegada. Fitted with radiotransmitters to monitor their success, these repatriated animals have had an impressive survival rate of 85%, providing the population with a substantial increase in young adults and significantly reducing the species immediate threat of extinction. Another release of iguanas is scheduled for October 2006. In July 2006, with funding from the IIF, a team of field volunteers searched the bush for signs of nesting. Four freshly laid nests were identified and marked. Barriers to contain the hatchlings upon emergence were erected and the nests are due to hatch in October. Most of these hatchlings will be moved to the headstart facility for rearing.
 
 
In the future, the project will continue headstarting animals, but will also expand studies of the resident wild population to better document its distribution, size, demography, and ecology. Because full recovery of the Anegada iguana will require habitat protection and eradication of feral mammals, the project will also work toward establishing a national park and controlling mammals, as outlined in the Anegada Iguana Species Recovery Plan to be published later this year.
 
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