SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The forest of a private island in the Caribbean was quiet until conservationists turned it into a love nest for the critically endangered Lesser Antilles iguana.
Now the sounds of iguanas crashing to the ground and scurrying as they breed make scientists smile.
“It’s something that’s ours,” said Devon Carter, a research officer at the Anguilla National Trust. “We don’t have lions, we don’t have elephants, but what we have, we have to appreciate.”
The population of the Lesser Antillean iguana, also known as Iguana delicatissima, was zero on Prickly Pear East Cay nearly a decade ago.
But scientists near Anguilla, who were determined to save the species from extinction, put 10 iguanas in small breathable cotton bags and boated them to predator-free horses in the hope they would breed.
And they multiplied. The population has grown to 300 and counting, making the horse one of five places worldwide where the iguana is trying to make a comeback. Fewer than 20,000 species are estimated to remain, according to conservation groups.
“The Eastern Prickly Pear has become a beacon of hope for these gorgeous lizards and proves that when we give native wildlife a chance, they know what to do,” said Jenny Daltry, director of the Caribbean Alliance for conservation groups Fauna & Flora and Re:wild.
A lover and an enemy
Indigenous people are estimated to have arrived in the eastern Caribbean about 7,000 years ago.
Iguanas from the Lesser Antilles were already there, probably arriving on the islands by floating on top of debris thrown up by rivers that had washed their banks in South America, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
At the time, iguanas inhabited about 10 islands, but are now extinct in Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and St. Martin and have largely disappeared from Guadeloupe, St. Barts and Martinique, according to conservation group Re:wild.
The biggest threat? Green or striped iguana. Originally from Central and South America, it was introduced to Guadeloupe in the 1800s and then spread to other islands thanks to Hurricane Luis, which hit the northeastern Caribbean in 1995.
Green iguanas have more offspring, are more territorial, and eat more food than Lesser Antillean iguanas.
But the biggest problem is that both species mate with each other.
“It really puts genetic viability at risk,” said Isabel Curtis, a conservation officer at the Anguilla National Trust. “If your genetics are diluted, your species as a whole cannot continue.”
So in 2015, scientists in Anguilla armed themselves with long poles with a noose on the end to leash the Lesser Antilles iguanas and transported them to East Prickly Pear, where there are no dogs, cats, traffic, green iguanas or other deadly threats.
Residents would call in sightings or take photos to aid in the search.
“I spent a good year looking for iguanas,” recalled Farah Mukhida, executive director of the Anguilla National Trust. “Everything is done by hand.”
Life on a new island
After a year, scientists captured 23 Lesser Antillean iguanas in Anguilla, a number believed to be almost the entire population of this species on the island.
The iguanas were genetically tested to ensure they were full-breed, and then the first 10 were tagged and released into nearby Prickly Pear East, Mukhida said.
Once the population appeared to be adjusting well to its new home, the scientists released the remaining 13 iguanas.
“I was seeing babies, I was seeing their burrows where they were nesting,” Mukhida recalled. “It was really encouraging that it was reproducing.”
Lesser Antillean iguanas are bright green when young, but turn a slate gray or dusty black as adults, with a lifespan of over 20 years in the wild.
But concerns remained despite the successful breeding.
Scientists have contacted officials on the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica to obtain more female iguanas in an attempt to increase the genetic diversity of the lizards that breed in the Eastern Prickly Pear. Dominica has the region’s largest population of iguanas in the Lesser Antilles, but these too are now under threat from green iguanas that arrived after Hurricane Maria hit the region in 2017.
The petition was sent during the pandemic, so Carter and other scientists had to self-quarantine before traveling to Dominica. Once there, they built houses for the captured iguanas, monitored their health and did DNA tests to make sure they weren’t hybrid iguanas.
They fed the iguanas flowers, pumpkins and carrots, although some had to be hand-fed with a syringe, Carter recalled with a laugh.
“These are the ones you remember the most,” he said, adding that he nicknamed one of them “Green.”
The captured iguanas were then transported from Dominica in a special type of pillowcases and boxes with many breathing holes and landed in Anguilla, where they were then taken by boat to Prickly Pear East.
Curtis said saving the iguanas in the Lesser Antilles is important to maintaining biodiversity: “Each species has a specific function.”
Now breeding in Eastern Prickly Pear. It remains uninhabited, but welcomes boaters to the Cay’s only two restaurants, which sell grilled chicken, ribs and lobster. Iguanas are not on the menu.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america