Rebuilding Iguana Populations

Translocations are an effective strategy for creating new populations of wild iguanas in safe and suitable habitats, thus allowing their numbers to expand naturally. This technique has proven valuable in the Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) where iguanas were moved from Big Ambergris Cay, which is undergoing rapid development and loss of iguana habitat, to several small uninhabited cays within their natural range. The IIF supported this translocation, and is also funding research to study the effects of translocation on home range, movements, and stress in TCI iguanas.