Ctenosaura quinquecarinata

Five-keeled
Spiny-tailed Iguana

IUCN Status: Data Deficient

Stats

IUCN Status: Data Deficient
Range: Nicaragua to Northwestern Costa Rica
Population: Unknown, believe to be decreasing
Size: Up to 4.75 inches snout-to-vent length, 3 ounces
Threats: habitat destruction and intentional fear-based killing.
honduras
Ctenosaura quinquecarinata
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Species Information

  • The Five-keeled Spiny-tailed Iguana is found in three core areas that are isolated and distant from each other, along the Pacific versant of Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica.
  • The iguanas occurs in tropical and subtropical dry forest, both in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and is sometimes found in human altered habitats.
  • They are threatened by habitat fragmentation and destruction for agricultural land conversion, hunting for meat and in some areas killed because of a belief that they are poisonous. 
  • Currently they are protected through a seasonal ban on hunting, by the Ministry of the Environment of Nicaragua, however enforcement is lacking.
  • Very little is known about the Costa Rican sub population of this species and attention should be given to this area.
Ctenosaura quinquecarinata
Ctenosaura quinquecarinata
Ctenosaura quinquecarinata
Ctenosaura quinquecarinata
Ctenosaura quinquecarinata

IIF Grants Awarded

2015 Grant $7,234

Effects of Habitat Fragmentation and Hunting on the Genetic Diversity of the Threatened Oaxacan Spiny-tailed Iguana. Part 2: Evaluation of the Genetic Diversity of the Sister Taxa the Yellow-backed Spiny-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura flavidorsalis) and Five-keeled Spiny-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura quinquecarinata)

Gabriela Díaz-Juárez

$7,234

2012 Grant $8,300

Population Assessment and Environmental Education to Conserve the Endangered Five-keeled Spiny-tailed Iguana, Ctenosaura quinquecarinata, in Nicaragua’s Paso del Istmo Biological Corridor

Kim Williams-Guillen and Cesar Otero-Ortuno

$8,300

Reports from the Field