Reptile & Amphibian Forums

are the iguana species found on the bay islands of honduras(roatan, utila,etc.) protected and against the law to import ? are they bred in the u.s. by anyone ? thanks in advance for any info.....

C. Bakeri is protected for sure, the others also probably though I hear the natives eat them regularly. Mark M. or cyclura.com should be able to answer that question. There are some C. Bakeri's that came into the country legally via a zoo in Germany, as to if they can be legally sold is another question ?

The Bay Island Iguanas may be protected now. They are endangered even though they may not be listed as such. I do have a group, but for now they are not for sale. At this point offspring will be given to zoo's until they can't take anymore. If the "release back to the wild" program can't be initiated. Then if okayed by the bakeri keepers group in the U.S. and Germany, only male animals may be available to only the serious hobbiest and not to anyone who sells reptiles. But this won't be for a while.

"Then if okayed by the bakeri keepers group in the U.S. and Germany, only male animals may be available to only the serious hobbiest"

What is the rationale for that exclusivity?

Roger

We don't want people breeding them, who may sell offspring to people who may cross breed them with another species, thus causing a similar problem like with the lewisi x nubila, nubilia x caymanensis, caymanensis x lewisi, mess, contaminating a genetically pure population in the U.S. It may too much of a risk even selling males, because those could breed with other female cteno species. The other option is to only sell spayed and neutered bakeri if one wishes to have a pair.

lewisi x nubila, nubilia x caymanensis, caymanensis x lewisi,

Isn't that problem caused by the fact that no one has pure caymanesis or pure lewisi to breed?

If both sexes of bakeri were availably to hobbyists, pure bakeri would proliferate. The price would then come down. It's the same with monitors. Some people make oddball crosses, but most who want to breed their lizards want the pure offspring. These hobbyists provide some of the rarest species to the herper culture, like various tree monitors and now even CB croc monitors. I wish the Fiji ig were in the hobbyist realm, so people could breed them to sell them to other serious hobbyists.

Some bakeri owners might want the prices to remain high by artificially creating a shortage.

Roger