Reptile & Amphibian Forums

To answer your question Ctenosaura, it is a wild caught lizard. About the middle of last year, about 200 to 300 palearis came in from Nicaragua. These were obviously smuggled, because palearis doesn't occur in Nicaragua. This is speculation, but they were probably caught in Guatemala and smuggled into Nicaragua, that exports reptiles. The ended up at a large wholesaler in Texas, which dispersed them to smaller reptile wholesalers. I bought a large group. I kept a good sized group and dispensed some of them to other collectors and conservation minded individuals. I also have a small group of palearis that were WC 12 years ago, and some captive born adults that were produced by these 12 year old lizards. So although I am angered over the smuggling of these lizards, they are here now and won't be going back. I can use the new genetics responsibly. It seems all these imported lizards are under 4 years old because of their size. Guatemala is now really buttoning down the hatch so it is doubtful that anymore will be showing up. It would be wise that there be several breding colonies in the states because these appear to be really imperiled in Guatemala. The photo is one of my long term adults.

Nice picture. Thanks for the information.
Only i'm not from the US but from the Netherlands. I've lost my password from my former account here: Willem.

Juvenile quinquecarinata have a green color on their back isn't it?

I've got two at home and I am able to buy a juvenile, but I'm not yet certain that this is one.

Sorry Bro, I have no info on the Euro stock. Take good care of that baby.

It seems so crazy that these guys are so scarce now or I should say unavailable, they used to come in to the shows as low budget spinytails, I also remember that their were very similar looking spinytails available. At the shows both were usually sold as dwarf spinytails, I'm kind of confused of the whole thing. I would think that their would be a lot of palearis out there since they were available for so long, unfortunately they probably were not seen as so precious. KB

well, a shop nearby sold a little while ago several spiny tails. Now they only have one left. I am planning on checking this one out tonight or tomorrow.

He said in a mail to me, that this one is about 25-30cm, and that it has green and blueisch dots on it's back. So i'm wondering which specie this one might be? maybe one of you guys know this?

I'll try to find out also if he knows who bought those others. Always interesting to know.

Hello Willem, I wonder the sort of cteno he has left. Can you make a picture of it ?
I know the shop you talk about, is this the last cteno he has left ? A few weeks ago I only saw the species I have 2.2.0.
And I still do not know the name of the species. Let me know OK ?

Hi Willem,
hope you are doin' OK...

Here in Germany you have the same situation with Palearis like last year. Lots of zoo shops have them availabe.

Cheers
Karsten

Hey Karsten,

nice hearing from you. I've sended you a mail .

greetings

Hey Kevin, that was the problem; cheap price = disposable pet. Most probably died due to bored pet owners who probably didn't want to care for them anymore. If they are still exporting these to Europe, that is just a shame. The other problem is a limited market. Unlike monitors and geckos, there is limited interest in iguanas. Hows your managerie doing.

Well they were still exported to Europe. The shop owners think they don't get them in any more. The last specie in the shop was I guess a flavidorsalis. It had a very round and spiky tail (not like the quinquecarinata) It didn't have bands towards his belly either. Only in the neck it had a few little spikes.
The shop owner said that this animal got blue spots from time to time. It size was about 20cm in total length. I don't know if for example Germany still get them in.

I am wondering where all the other animals went to. I bought this palearis a while ago, it was in this same group. For the rest there were a lot of quinquecarinata (or look-alikes?)and palearis in this group. But they have all been sold.