2006 Project Update

2006 Nesting Season

Once again, the iguana nesting season work was coordinated by Rick van Veen, with assistance provided by Dawn Fleuchaus, Leon Samson, Stephanie Wicker, and four University of the West Indies students. Funding was provided by grants from the International Iguana Foundation and the Disney Wildlife Conservation Trust. The two main nesting areas in central Hellshire (i.e., the “Upper Nesting Site” [UNS] and the "Lower Nesting Site" [LNS]) were monitored from newly constructed observation hides during the month of June. In total, 13 females were confirmed as having deposited nests in these two areas. These communal nesting areas were surrounded with metal flashing prior to the hatching season in September, and resulted in the collection and enumeration of over 100 hatchlings. Several other successful nests were also discovered during the hatching season. 14 hatchlings emerged from a secondary nest near the LNS, and a minimum of 6 hatchlings (1 + 5) emerged from two small "rock-hole" nests. Another rock-hole nest to the southwest of the main nesting areas was also discovered, but this nest was flooded by heavy rains, as it was in 2005 as well. One other potential rock-hole nest was noted but was not accessible and therefore could not be examined to determine whether it produced hatchlings. Finally, "Stumpy," a head-start release from 2001, deposited eggs in the camp vegetable garden. At the time of this writing, those eggs have not hatched; and, while it is possible that those eggs are still viable, they may have succumbed to suboptimal incubation conditions.

In total, we documented the successful production of 125 hatchlings; 85 were PIT-tagged and released, 20 were taken to the Hope Zoo for head-starting, while the remainder were recorded based on the discovery of hatched eggs.

Radio Telemetry

Starting from the nesting season, Rick van Veen began attaching small (BP-2) radio transmitters to post-partum female iguanas. The main objectives of the exercise were to determine the distances females were traveling to access the two known, communal nesting areas, to map their non-nesting season home ranges, and to gather additional information on habitat use patterns. In total 15 females and 11 males were radio tagged. Several of the transmitters failed almost immediately, or became detached from the lizard. In all, reliable data were obtained for 20 animals. As expected, females have smaller home ranges than males; somewhat of a surprise was that these females apparently live quite close to the nesting areas. We had expected that given the paucity of suitable nesting sites (i.e., dirt areas), some of them would have traveled considerable distances. Still on-going, this study has revealed some interesting aspects of iguana behaviour and habitat use that may have important conservation implications.

For example, well worn iguana trails ("pads") leading to and from particular fruiting trees were noted during radio telemetry efforts. These pads appear to have been used by iguanas for decades (or longer), and point to the critical importance of these resources; this, of course, underscores the imperative of curtailing tree cutting in the Hellshire Hills.

All observations of iguanas were recorded with the use of GPS units, as were the locations of all other iguana sign (e.g., pads, scats, active rock hole refuges, feeding marks, tail drags), resulting in the collection of over 900 data location points for use in a GIS analysis of iguana habitat use in the core iguana area.

A New Iguana conservationist - Mr. Leon Samson

A most exciting development for the project has been the addition of a talented and highly reliable field worker in the form of Leon Samson. With close ties to the Port Royal Marine Laboratory (the UWI Life Sciences facility that provides boat transport for the project), Leon joined the recovery effort in January of 2006. With funding from UWI New Initiative and Conservation International grants to Byron Wilson, Leon has been making a significant contribution to our efforts. Training of Leon to assume additional field duties is on-going. That training, together with his high level of enthusiasm, should translate into a long-term project member who will ultimately take over the reins of field coordinator from Rick van Veen.

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