GLOBE AND MAIL (Toronto, Ontario) 12 December 07 Saving the big blues (Cinda Chavich)
George Town, Grand Cayman: On an island that is literally defined by shades of cerulean, cyan, azure and aquamarine, it's no wonder that its endangered giant lizard is a lovely hue of blue.
Here on Grand Cayman, where the water and sky form a continuous canvas of brilliant blues in every direction, it may well be the best colour for camouflage. But it's still rather shocking to confront a five-foot-long creature that is truly turquoise, from its scaly blue snout to the end of its spiky blue tail.
And while I'm amazed by this blue iguana's remarkable colouring, perhaps even more astounding is the Blue Iguana Recovery Program, which is helping to save the Grand Cayman blue iguana, the world's most critically endangered lizard. From a wild population of only 25 in 2001, the mostly volunteer program has already reared and released more than 280 iguanas, here on a tiny Caribbean island, where development pressures favour space for warm-blooded tourists over cold-blooded wildlife.
"This is dry tropical forest - native Caribbean forest - and we've released 40 into this area," says "iguana warden" Chris Carr, scanning the dry underbrush in the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, where the program is centred, as we trudge along the trails on one of his Blue Dragon Safaris.
While the National Trust of the Cayman Islands began supporting the blue iguana breeding program in 1990, it was shocked to discover in 2001 that 90 per cent of the wild population had disappeared and that only 25 individuals remained. An emergency species recovery plan was drafted, and while extinction seemed imminent, the rare iguana, found only on the island of Grand Cayman, has since made a remarkable recovery, thanks to support from zoos and reptile experts around the world and their ongoing program of captive breeding, field research and habitat protection.
Earlier this year, Prince Edward was on the island to see some of this year's 116 young blue iguanas released by volunteers into the Salina Reserve, a wilderness area the National Trust recently set aside for iguana habitat.
In the Botanic Park, on Grand Cayman's quiet east end, experts such as Carr are now offering weekly guided walks to give the public a behind-the-scenes glimpse at their work.
"That's Shy - she's a good breeder, lays about 10 to 15 eggs a year," Carr says as we come across our first big blue, a female basking on a grassy slope. It's breeding season, so the iguanas' unique colouring is even more pronounced, deepening as the big lizards warm themselves in the sun.
The 26-hectare park has interpretive trails and ponds for birdwatching, but it's the iguanas that are the biggest attraction. Tiny pale blue anole lizards bounce rapidly from tree to tree as we continue hiking the limestone-lined pathways, past peeling red birch, banana orchids and ghost orchids hanging among the smokewood and giant agave.
"Iguanas traditionally nested on beach ridges, exactly where we now have roads, houses, dogs, cats and teenagers - all bad for iguanas," says Carr, a former medical technician who took on the program's only paid position after a year as a volunteer.
The guided tours are helping to support the iguana recovery program.
A new sponsorship program lets anyone name and sponsor a baby lizard for $25 or one of the larger adults for up to $1,000.
The group also welcomes volunteers for "working holidays" to help collect food for the vegetarian lizards, clean their pens, build camouflaged concrete iguana "houses" and track individuals in the wild, Carr says.
While the breeding program has so far been very successful, it has hit a major snag. The growing population remains endangered - to be stable, the wild population must exceed 1,000. And while the National Trust has acquired some wilderness land for iguana habitat, both the Botanic Park and the Salina Reserve are reaching their capacity for these solitary and territorial creatures.
"The program will grind to a halt soon if we don't get more land," Carr says, explaining that inbreeding among the carefully controlled gene pool could destroy the population.
Over the summer, Team Blue 2007 began radio-tracking the iguanas released over the past three years to try to calculate how many more blue iguanas can be squeezed into the Salina Reserve. Meanwhile, the 30 to 40 animals in both wild and captive areas in the Botanic Park are providing more than 80 viable eggs each year.
"By incubating them ourselves, we've been able to get 100 per cent to adulthood," adds Carr, stopping to make notes after spotting a young iguana sunning itself next to the path.
"That's Yog - yellow, orange, green," he says referring to the three tiny coloured beads threaded through the loose skin behind the little iguana's head. "Yog was born last September - we use the beads to identify them, along with microchips and high-resolution photographs." Iguanas have a unique pattern of facial bumps and scales, as unique as a human fingerprint, that is helping researchers track and identify individuals. There is a sad irony in the fact that iguanas - looking like miniature dinosaurs with their prehistoric profiles - are now among the most endangered creatures on the planet. An animal that has thrived for more than three million years now faces imminent extinction, mainly due to human intrusion into their habitat.
In the case of Grand Cayman's blue iguanas, the island's unique xerophytic shrubland ecosystem - the rocky, dry coastal areas of low shrubs and sandy nesting sites - is being paved over for hotels, condominium complexes and residential developments. Natural and man-made disasters - such as the devastating Hurricane Ivan of 2004 and suspicious forest fires - add to the habitat pressures.
In the wild, iguanas and iguana eggs often fall prey to feral cats and rats, or domestic dogs, species introduced when the first settlers arrived here 300 years ago.
Today, 12 of the recognized 40 species of iguanas in the world - or 30 per cent - are critically endangered, meaning they will probably disappear without "urgent conservation intervention," says Rick Hudson, director of the International Iguana Foundation, a non-profit scientific and conservation organization dedicated to saving these rare species.
The volunteers at the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana Recovery Program are doing everything they can to make sure that the unique blue lizard doesn't become another extinction statistic. Its website puts the program's success into stark perspective: "The difficult issue of how to protect their last home must be addressed. It will require a combination of public support, political commitment and substantial sums of money.
"With their home protected, the nesting areas restored and their numbers boosted, a thousand-strong population living natural lives in their own nature reserve is the vision we are working towards."
Getting There The Blue Iguana Recovery Program is centred in the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, the only national park on Grand Cayman Island.
It is a 45-minute drive from the airport in George Town.
Blue dragon safari Guided, behind-the-scenes tour every Tuesday in the park, which is open to visitors daily for bird or iguana watching. You can also simply hike the park to discover the free-roaming iguanas on your own. For more information, call 345 947-3558 or visit www.botanic-park.ky.
Salina Reserve This is strictly a wildlife sanctuary, off limits to visitors and accessible only to scientists and researchers. To volunteer your time or support, phone (345) 947-6050 or visit www.blueiguana.ky.
Saving the big blues