




































Iguana 10.1


10 Iguana Volume 10, Number 1

A
bout four hundred adult Turks and
Caicos Rock Iguanas (Cyclura carinata
carinata) are kissing the ground of their
new home on Long Cay in the Caicos

Bank. All of them were scooped out of the paths
of bulldozers on Big Ambergris Cay, where a new
resort development is in the early stages of con-
struction.

Big Ambergris Cay supports one of the last
large populations of these animals — and it liter-
ally teems with them. Iguanas occupy every suit-
able square inch of habitat on the island. Because
all of the usable space is taken, iguanas that find
themselves in the way of roadbeds, houses, and
canals have nowhere to go as their habitat disap-
pears.

Equally substantial populations existed only
decades ago on Providenciales, North, Middle,
East, and South Caicos, and on the smaller cays in

between. The mistake made again and again as
each island was developed was to think: “No prob-
lem — we’re practically tripping over these lizards
with every footstep. How could they ever become
endangered?” Only in hindsight did we realize that
populations of rough-and-tumble dinosaur-like
lizards could actually be fragile. We now know that
they cannot coexist with larger mammals, particu-
larly cats, grazing animals, and humans. In fact,
predation, competition, and habitat loss caused by
these seemingly innocuous sources had wiped out
95% of the world’s population of the unique Turks
and Caicos Rock Iguana by the mid-1900s.

In 1999, when development on Big
Ambergris Cay began in earnest, the government
was determined not to repeat the same iguana-
extinction scenario that had already occurred on
every large developed island in the Turks and
Caicos (TCI). That year, TCI’s Department of

Another Chance for the 
Turks and Caicos Rock Iguana

Numi Mitchell
The Conservation Agency

Cyclura carinata carinata (female). Photograph by John Binns

Iguana 10.1  3/2/03  11:10 AM  Page 10



Environment and
Coastal Resources
(DECR) teamed up
with The Conservation
Agency and the
Denver Zoo, who
claimed they could find
a home for some of the
displaced lizards. The
island’s owner, Henry
Mensen, agreed to
help.

This was easier said
than done. The prob-
lem was finding
another, or several
other, suitable islands.
You couldn’t just move
iguanas to any island
that currently had no
iguanas. If the island
had humans and the
usual entourage of
free-ranging cats, dogs,
and livestock, it was immediately disqualified. The
team needed to find islands without iguanas that
also were otherwise uninhabited. Two types were
found: (1) very small islands which, because of lack
of fresh water, would not support cats, dogs, or
livestock, and (2) larger islands with some fresh

water that had free ranging cats or livestock that
had been released and had survived.

The Conservation Agency, Denver Zoo, and
DECR were interested in a long-term solution,
and the team was curious as to why the smaller
cays that were obviously capable of supporting per-
manent populations of iguanas didn’t already have
them. They suspected that hurricanes were the
major problem; during storms, small, lower-profile
islands can overwash completely. The team chose
to tackle a larger island with some topographic
relief, in spite of the fact that the habitat would
first have to be repaired. 

One island stood out: Long Cay, neighboring
South Caicos, a thin, unpopulated, 3-mile-long
island with a backbone of 100-foot limestone
cliffs, sandy scarps, and grassy plains and salt-
marshes on the sheltered western side. The 260-
acre island was government-owned and already
part of the Admiral Cockburn Nature Reserve.
The beauty of Long Cay was striking from the cliff
tops and the habitat was perfect — except for one
fatal flaw — it supported a population of hungry
domestic cats whose unwanted ancestors had been
released there years ago. Cats are very efficient
predators and the relatively small Turks and Caicos
Iguanas are quite vulnerable to them, particularly

11IguanaMarch 2003

In June 2000, the
Nation celebrated
the return of the
Turks and Caicos
Iguana to Long
Cay during
Environment
Week as Julia
Jones, wife of 
his Excellency,
Governor Mervyn
Jones, ceremoni-
ally cut the ribbon
and the iguanas
raced across the
line into the lush
bush of their
ancestral home.
Numi Mitchell 
in the dark dress
and Julia Jones 
in the light dress.
Note the iguana
running to Numi’s right. Photographer: Beth Outten.

Cyclura carinata carinata (young male). Photograph by John Binns

Iguana 10.1  3/2/03  11:11 AM  Page 11



in the early morning when iguanas are cold and
slow. A population of iguanas was known to have
existed on Long Cay in the 1970s, and individuals
had been seen sporadically as recently as the 1990s
— but the introduction of cats had made it impos-
sible for iguanas to survive on the cay.

The Conservation Agency and Denver Zoo
conferred and concluded that things could be
worse. Long Cay could have goats, sheep, pigs,
cows, donkeys, dogs, and cats. It had only cats,
and not many at that. They took a vote and
decided that, with the help of the DECR, they
could restore Long Cay and bring the iguanas
home.

In June 1999, the team tackled the job of
clearing the island of the 5–10 cats whose presence
would make iguana recolonization impossible.
Using a combination of toxic bait (1080, a plant
derivative used successfully in New Zealand to
control feral cats and Australian opossums) and
box traps, they mounted an intensive campaign.

By January 2000, they were confident that all
of the cats were gone. The island was safe for
iguanas and, with the help of many game volun-
teers, the team began catching and moving groups
of iguanas from Big Ambergris to the now pristine
Long Cay. What kind of people like catching
iguanas? You would be surprised. The
Conservation Agency, Denver Zoo, and the
DECR had no trouble finding “assistants” who
enthusiastically agreed to be baked in the sun,
serve as dart boards for thousands of mosquitoes,
and be scratched, sometimes severely, by thorn
scrub. Local volunteers came from South Caicos,

Grand Turk, Pine Cay, and Provo to steal around
the bush “tossing” iguanas, as noosing is locally
called. They used fishing poles with 200-lb-test
monofilament loops at the end. Some folks
claimed that a whistled rendition of “Yankee
Doodle Dandy” would allow you to sneak up on
iguanas more easily but, after noosing a couple of
hundred myself, I can say it doesn’t really make
much difference. Nevertheless, people tended to
stick with this method and, on capture days in the
baking bush of Big Ambergris, one could always
hear at least six asynchronous versions in at least
three different keys.

Whistling or not, a hunter had to sneak up on
an iguana and then distract it so it wouldn’t notice
the noose being slipped around its neck. That
accomplished, with a flick of the wrist, the hunter
tweaked the noose tight and lunged forward to
grab the furiously flailing iguana. Males turned out
to be relatively easy to noose because of their atti-
tude — they stand their ground, even pumping
themselves up on stiff legs to look larger as you
approach. Females tended to be shy and more apt
to try to slip away. Neither is shy when noosed,
however. Hunters who made the mistake of
putting their hands too close to the mouth of an

12 Iguana Volume 9, Number 3

Volunteer Virginia
“Gingee” Brewer
signed on for the
expedition. On
her first trip she
coerced five of
her associates to
help with the
effort. She is
interested in both
science and
conservation but
has an additional
concern: she is a
homeowner on
Pine Cay.
Photographs by
Numi Mitchell

Iguana 10.1  3/2/03  11:11 AM  Page 12



13IguanaSeptember 2002

indignant noosed iguana became charter members
of “The Bite Club.” People almost always became
members of The Bite Club immediately after
laughing at others who had become members just
before them.

Boatloads of 25–100 iguanas, traveling with
their overheated, sore-muscled captors (most of
whom were fantasizing about icy cold beer), were
moved from Big Ambergris to the DECR lab on
South Caicos, where they were held overnight.
Animals were weighed, measured, and each received
a unique internal transponder tag that would allow
researchers to identify them if they were recaptured.
The following day, they were released on Long Cay.
Some sported radiocollars and were monitored for
the next couple of months as they established them-
selves on their new island home.

While The Conservation Agency, Denver Zoo,
and DECR provided the principal workforce, vol-
unteers continued to help in many ways, particu-
larly while radiotracking the new settlers and
recapturing them to check their weights and con-
ditions. Many offered to help — kids, fishermen,
grandmothers, and government officials — anyone
adventurous, curious, or concerned. Even his
Excellency, Governor Mervyn Jones, and his wife
Julia came to Long Cay to pitch in.

In June 2000, the nation celebrated the return
of iguanas to Long Cay during Environment
Week. Julia Jones cut the ceremonial ribbon and

the iguanas raced across the line into the lush bush
of their ancestral home.

Since that summer celebration, the iguanas on
Long Cay have been thriving. All rapidly found
burrows (many of which were probably once
occupied by their ancestors) and apparently found
plenty to eat. Iguanas on the cay are proportion-
ately fatter than those from Big Ambergris and are
brightly colored (indicating that they are growing
rapidly and frequently shedding their skin). One-
and two-year-old babies are easy to see on the
island — a fact attributable to the absence of cats.

Today, thanks to The Conservation Agency,
the Denver Zoo, and the DECR, Long Cay is a
Garden of Eden for the rescued iguanas and their
offspring. In the big picture, though, it is only one

Cyclura carinata carinata.  Photograph by John Binns

Cyclura carinata carinata (male). Photograph by John Binns

Cyclura carinata carinata.  Photograph by John Binns

Iguana 10.1  3/2/03  11:11 AM  Page 13



basket of eggs. We need numbers of other
reserves, and initiatives like those by the Turks and
Caicos National Trust in setting aside the Chalk
Sound, Little Water Cay, and Little Ambergris
Reserves, and current efforts by the San Diego
Zoo to repopulate smaller cays, help to insure that
the endemic Turks and Caicos Rock Iguana —
found no where else in the world — survives.
From the perspective of The Conservation Agency
and the Denver Zoo, restoration work needs to
continue. More candidate island homesites must
be found and “repaired” by removing non-native
wildlife that preys on, competes with, or otherwise
undermines native or unique Turks and Caicos
species.

Restoring habitat for iguanas will restore habi-
tat for other native animals — local and migratory.
We all will start to see a wider range of native
wildlife reappearing in the TCI. For now, the
homeless iguanas of Big Ambergris will continue
to provide opportunities to restock many of the
islands on which this endemic lizard belongs.  

14 Iguana Volume 9, Number 3

Numi Mitchell photographed during a hike in mid-day
heat. Photograph by John Binns

Long Cay, 
Turks and Caicos.

Photographs by 
Numi Mitchell

Iguana 10.1  3/2/03  11:11 AM  Page 14


