Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been in the Turks and Caicos off and on for the last few weeks and had a great time photographing these guys...

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Matt Lerer
Ghi Reptiles

Matt, back in 1973 I actually was there collecting Boas and saw these Cyclura on many Cays off N. Caicos and on Ambergris Cay. The late George Campbell [author and conservationalist] was with me. I brought back 2.4 and kept them for 5 years breeding them twice. Like an idiot I traded mine off eventually. Before I am attacked the time was a diffferent time than today and in fact while I was there I purchased two lg sacks full of them from a resident who caught them to eat and sell for food. We purchased them to save them and released them on a xeric remote part of N. Caicos. Our Lizards were caught on Grouper Cay and they were astonishingly abundant. We also observed hundreds on Sandy Cay but I believe that entire population is now extirpated by feral cats. It is good to know they are alive and well. Thanks for the great pics and bringing back memories from the past. George Campbell wrote several books but is probably best known for " JAWS, TOO" and "THE NATURE OF THINGS ON SANIBEL"....By the way for those of you that don't know what these are they are Cyclura carinata, a rather small species of Ground Iguana....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Tom,
I bet you hated trading those Cyclura Carinatas off! I have done stuff like that too. At the time it seems like the right thing. Then later ya kick yourself! Been there.

Rick

Also on that trip we were collecting for the late Albert Schwartz PHD, a proffessor here in Miami and a pioneer in West Indian taxonomy and research studies. I collected a large unfamiliar Gecko on N. Caicos that turned out to be a brand new species in the 1970's. It was named Aristellegar hecti for Barbara Hect who studied Aristellegar Gecko's for much of her life. I believe she was at the American Museum Of Natural History as a research biologist and proffessor. Back in that time as we were collecting the things we wanted we also were encouraged by Dr. Schwartz and Lou Ober [another West Indian academic] to bring back a selection of herps with exact locales for their studies. Keep in mind that not only I did this for them but many other collectors here in Florida. Most of us brought these herps back because we liked them and wanted to work with them and NOT for money. We brought them back without permits and simply declared them and we were passed through. As I said in an earlier post it was a different time....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Nice pictures and well done. Would love to see them in the wild.

Matt - great pics and what a fantastic lizard! Any chance you came across TCI boas?

Thanks for sharing, Ryan

Didn't look for the boas...was busy with the iggy's and fishing.
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Matt Lerer
Ghi Reptiles