Blue iguanas’ fight for survival hangs in balance
(CNS): The Queen Elizabeth II Royal Botanic Park will soon have a fence surrounding its 65 acres to keep out unwanted predators and protect Cayman’s endemic blue iguana. Having been rescued from the brink of extinction by the team at the Blue Iguana Recovery Program (BIRP), led by Fred Burton, there are still mounting threats to the unique reptile‘s survival. In an exclusive CNS mini-documentary Jamie Hicks finds out more about the latest issues facing this icon of the Cayman Islands.
A blue iguana is tagged as part of the effort to save the species
Last week one of the Botanic Park’s star iguanas, 14-year-old Inky, was killed by a stray dog, the second blue to die this month. As conservationists urge the community to address the problem of roaming dogs and even cats, the BIRP is facing numerous difficulties in its goal to increase the wild population of blue iguanas, and Burton believes that their only future may be behind a fence.
“I don’t see any other alternatives. It’s kind of like they’re living natural lives, in wild places but they’re not free just to go wherever they want. But at least it means they’re separated from the threats,” Burton told CNS.
Watch the CNS Video report for more about what researchers are doing to secure a future for one of the rarest iguanas in the world.
Read more about the Blue Iguana Recovery Program and find out how you can help
Category: Land Habitat, Science & Nature
Green iguanas roaming free wherever they want and eating whatever they feel like from the local plantations while idiots protected them in the laws of the land and the real Caymanian Blue iguana is fenced in and locked up in a reservation “for their own good”.
Sounds like the story of born Caymanians to me while the “investor” gets to destroy whatever they want to and give our livelihood to their “educated” friends…….how much longer before we are all told to get and stay on our “reservation”, for our own good, because the law says so?
11’56 AND 2’18
Totally agree…Extinction is forever!
The Islands are being destroyed for a few pieces of silver.
Ignorance and greed are the root causes of the problem.
We might as well build a new airport on top of the blue iguana reserve when we build the new cruise terminal. See if we can work out a discount with extra kickbacks from the contractor.
As the blue iguanas, parrots and turtles go, so goes the “native” Caymanian. For too long, the local people have actively pursued or tacitly countenanced the eradication of their own native flora and fauna without understanding that in so doing they are destroying their own culture and ultimately themselves. And for what? An extra mango or a plate of stew?
Sad, sad, sad.
They need to travel more widely, and see how other countries save their vegetation and indigenous trees. Whatever the investors want they get and more, that’s why we have found ourselves in such a precarious position. No foresight.