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IRCF ON THE MOVE

Endangered Blue Iguana Population Doubles
The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, on the small Caribbean
island of Grand Cayman, has just doubled the wild population
of the critically endangered Grand Cayman Blue Iguana (Cyclura
lewisi).

A giant, turquoise blue lizard unique to a single island, the
Grand Cayman Blue Iguana skirted with extinction in 2002
when its wild population sank to between 10 and 25 individu-
als. Habitat loss and road kills are still compounding long-estab-
lished pressures from feral cats and roaming dogs that attack and
kill hatchling and adult iguanas, respectively. This magnificent
reptile was once the Cayman Islands’ largest land animal, but
has been in decline since the first years of human colonization. 

The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme has embarked on a
large-scale population restoration effort for the iguanas, in
Grand Cayman’s Salina Reserve. By 2006, two major releases of
captive-reared Blue Iguanas had brought the Reserve’s iguana
population to 92 individuals, aged three and four years. Some
of the four-year-olds began to breed in the summer of 2006,
when researchers documented three successfully hatched nests,
and observed the first hatchling to be seen wild in the Salina
Reserve for well over a decade.

A group of international volunteers converged on Grand
Cayman in late 2006, to help the Programme’s staff release 103
more Blue Iguanas, which were available thanks to the
Programme’s highly successful captive-breeding and head-start-
ing operation. Dubbed “Team Blue 2007,” the volunteer team
is the latest in a series that is coordinated by the Programme’s
main U.S. partner, the International Reptile Conservation
Foundation, which also underwrote a portion of the operation’s
cost through a generous grant from a donor through the Maine
Community Foundation. Primary funding for the release effort
has come from the Programme’s main British partner, the
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Team Blue 2007 began work in late November, building
artificial retreats based on a Programme-developed design, which
encourages the iguanas to stay in the areas in which they are
released. Made variously from wood and lightweight concrete,
and weighing up to 35 lbs. each, the retreats were backpacked
into the Salina Reserve, placed strategically in predetermined
positions, and mapped precisely using GPS.

Simultaneously, a team of veterinarians from the Wildlife
Conservation Society in New York, examined the 103 iguanas
scheduled for release, checking blood smears, droppings, and

growth rates, to ensure that no parasites or other diseases were
being introduced from the captive population to the wild.

By mid-December, the first retreats were ready for occu-
pancy, and the iguanas were certified fit to go free. Team Blue
then expanded into a local community affair, as Christmas and
New Year holidays freed environmentally concerned residents
from their day-to-day jobs. School students, staff from the
Department of Environment, and staff from the National Trust
for the Cayman Islands were among those who risked the
extraordinarily harsh terrain of the Salina Reserve to release the
young Blue Iguanas into their designated retreats. As the release
reached a peak, the Governor of the Cayman Islands, Mr. Stuart
Jack, with his family and later his staff, also joined the team.

By New Year’s Day 2007, the population of Blue Iguanas
in the Salina Reserve had risen from 92 to 195. Combined with
the smaller numbers of Blue Iguanas the Programme has
released into the QE II Botanic Park, the total wild population
of Blue Iguanas now stands at approximately 214 individuals,
an order of magnitude greater than only five years ago.

The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, which operates
under the auspices of the National Trust for the Cayman Islands,
has a goal of restoring and maintaining at least 1,000 Blue
Iguanas in the wild. That target will require acquisition and pro-
tection of additional dry shrubland habitat in eastern Grand
Cayman, and will require the Programme to develop ways to
sustain itself financially for the long term.

For more information, see the following websites:
www.BlueIguana.ky, www.nationaltrust.org.ky, www.ircf.org,
and www.durrell.org.

I R C F  O N  T H E  M O V E

IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2007 61

HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, visited the Salina Reserve trail-
head on 4 February to see three young Blue Iguanas about to be
released. Here he responds to an adult Blue (“Pedro”) as BIRP Director
Fred Burton explains the threats that Blue Iguanas face in the wild.

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Some of the TeamBlue volunteers (from left): Doug Bell, Fred Burton,
Raffi (last name unknown), Molly Cavanaugh, Andrew McAffee, Nick
Louis, Memory Mays, Lorraine Scotson, Jude Bryja, and Kadie Frasier.

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Project Palearis
The initial phase of Project Palearis (see the Focus on
Conservation, p. 64), which the IRCF is undertaking in part-
nership with Zootropic and Zoo Atlanta, will begin in May
2007. The IRCF has purchased a vehicle and provided seed
money for research investigating the distribution, ecology, and
conservation status of the Guatemalan Black Iguana, Ctenosaura
palearis. Zootropic’s Daniel Ariano and an undergraduate stu-
dent, Paola Coti, will bead-tag and release all animals that are
captured. Five males and two females are already under observa-
tion at the research site in the Motagua Valley of Guatemala.
Thanks to the efforts of Zootropic, C. palearis has been granted
protection under Guatemalan law, and animals may no longer
be exported from the country.

Project Heloderma
A proposal to transfer the Guatemalan Beaded Lizard
(Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti) from CITES (Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and
Fauna) Appendix II to Appendix I has been submitted, with a
decision scheduled for the Fourteenth Meeting of the
Conference of the Parties to the CITES Agreement on 3–15
June 2007 in The Hague, Netherlands. If ratified, the transfer
will confer a much higher degree of protection on this critically
endangered species. Project Heloderma, the conservation pro-
gram on behalf of H. h. charlesbogerti, is a joint undertaking of
the IRCF, Zootropic, and Zoo Atlanta (see also IGUANA 13(2),
p. 176 and 13(3), pp. 178–191).

Argentine Sand Dune Lizard
The IRCF is providing equipment and funds for a research proj-
ect on behalf of the Argentine Sand Dune Lizard (Liolaemus
multimaculatus). This small reptile is uniquely adapted to its
sand dune habitat, able to “swim” in the sand in search of its
insect prey and perfectly camouflaged by its matching col-
oration. The Sand Dune Lizard and many other inhabitants of
this fragile ecosystem in Buenos Aires Province of Argentina are
endangered by habitat destruction. Liolaemus multimaculatus
will be featured in an article in the June issue of IGUANA.

62 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2007 IRCF ON THE MOVE

Guatemalan Black Iguana (Ctenosaura palearis).

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Guatemalan Beaded Lizard (Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti).

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Argentine Sand Dune Lizard (Liolaemus multimaculatus).

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The IRCF purchased this vehicle for use by personnel involved in
Projects Palearis and Heloderma.

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