Last call ahead of green iguana cull
Invasive green iguana
(CNS): The Department of Environment has now signed up 262 people for the nationwide green iguana cull, which starts on Monday, 29 October. Friday is the last day that registration will be open and those taking part must be registered to collect the $5 per head bounty. DoE staff will be on hand until 7:30 this evening to register anyone else who thinks they can kill at least 400 iguanas per month. Officials said they have had an excellent response but there is still time to sign up, by going to the DoE headquarters on North Sound Road in George Town, to take part in the huge effort to rapidly reduce the population of invasive iguanas.
The DoE said the list of cullers registered so far includes individuals, teams and businesses, who are planning to use a host of different measures to tackle the pests, including nooses and dogs. Once the cull is underway, the DoE will be closely monitoring the numbers to ensure that enough cullers are keeping up to expected quotas and the goal to remove at least one million over the next twelve months.
Despite the fact that the work is going to be both grueling and gruesome, the DoE is pleased with the response, and given the number of cullers registered, the challenge of ensuring that the cull reduces the numbers enough to make a difference ahead of the next breeding season should be met.
The cull registration is open to all Caymanians aged 18 years or over or relevant businesses with a valid trade and business licence. The final registration period will take place Friday evening at the Department of Environment HQ on 580 North Sound Road between 4:30 and 7:30pm.
See related article: Cullers wanted for ‘Operation Green Iguana’
Category: Land Habitat, Science & Nature
As much as I hate these critters eating everything in site, I strongly believe this exercise is a total waste of money, we need to be looking at wiping them out completely, next year we will do the same exercise? It’s never ending
Wouldn’t it be nice if we just spray a mist birth control in certain areas? Would love to use it in the green iguanas too.
the pond area opposite lantern point roundabout there has many many big ones hope they get those.
You Judas.
For the amount of money Govt is paying to have this short term solution that is not likely to have any real effect on the iguana population, couldnt they have hired a division of employees thru DoA or DoE, trained them properly and covered about a years worth salaries??
Or opened a factory to get the meat and skin to sell? Think about how many jobs that would create. Catchers and factory workers.
No chance of 400/day.
400 a month it says… which is about 13 a day.
$58 a day in other words. Until all the easy ones have been caught. How about getting an education for free and then getting a real job?
$58 is the minimum you can earn. The more you catch the more you earn.
none of these folks will do 400 a day….
never mind, misread it.
I can’t think of a better way to spend 7 Million dollars…………….
Instead of limiting the cull to Caymanians, it should include individuals on work permit as farm hands, landscapers and gardeners. Also property owners.
Something for DOE to consider before the blue iguanas are wiped out . Someone made a very valid point , are the cullers trained how to tell the difference between the green and blue iguanas before they pull the trigger on the gun ? Remember you can’t pull that bullet/pellet back after it leaves the gun .
The animal activist need to understand the problems and issues that green iguanas is causing and not be so passionate about them , because they aren’t passionate about your fruit trees and vegetation and they have outnumbered you and the whole population .
The blue ones are blue and the green ones are green.
Animal activist I am… but the thing most of us are stressing is the HUMANE cull. We don’t want these things suffering to death, we want trained people who can kill with one wap to the head. That’s the issue. We understand invasive species but let’s not use this as a way to torture another living thing because some people are sick in the head. Does this make sense or not?
Yes, makes sense. The low-powered air rifles allowed for use here — once one goes through the arduous and very lengthy process of acquiring one — often require more than one shot to humanely kill them.
Noosing is a humane kill, if done properly. Knife to the brain after they have been noosed. Noosing is primarily effective done at night when green iguanas are lethargic and settled for the night.
Did you miss registration or don’t want to bother with signing contracts?
Are you not able to meet the obligation of 400 minimum per month amount?
Want to cull just a few on the side and still be eligible to get paid?
Whatsapp 928-5904 for details.
Let’s help our environment in a humane manner. No gun required and if you need, I can help you make a snare.
This won’t be the last call. Trust me this will be going on for years if not decades.
As long as the money last.
Have these cullers been given adequate training about the difference between our native blue iguanas and the invasive green ones? Will there be penalties for those who kill blues instead of greens? I would like that this would be very important for those participating in the eastern districts.
don’t ask sensible questions!
I understand the need for culling, however I am concerned as to whether the task will be carried out in a humane manner at all times. Is there an outlet for the public to report if an individual, team or business is not carrying out the task in a human fashion? I believe this needs to be made available to ensure the amount of pain and suffering is kept to a minimum. I for one will not tolerate abuse or neglect of any kind, and will step in if I feel there is a need. I realise this could create tension within the community, which is why I wonder if there is an outlet for people such as myself, as I strongly suspect I am not alone.
Not in Cayman bobo. They don’t even do anything to dog and cat abusers, you think they will care about iguanas? Nah. It is so sad.
Just call Police or DoA, they are the ones under Law already tasked with enforcing the humane treatment of animals. No need to reinvent the wheel. (And if you don’t trust those avenues, log your report with the ombudsman’s office. So they can make sure the right authorities are doing their job right. Again, no need to reinvent the wheel.)
Just wait until one of those retards kills or mutilates an iguana in front of tourists or children.
In front of what children ,,,,you need see the john gray boys with them on the field ,haha ,they run them to death .
The John Gray boys should really start to focus more on school and less on being animal abusers. How do you know they do this?
Children from civilised backgrounds that don’t come from a culture of cruelty to animals, or women.
A legitimate cull is one thing, but brazen cruelty is absolutely unacceptable and should not be encouraged, especially by a government department.
What most of the posters here have forgotten that the original Caymanians were deserters from Cornwall’s army and some are descendants from pirates.
Cromwell’s New Model Army actually.
You mean children who drink tea with the pinky up, bow and curtsy to strangers and practice the watlz for a pass time?
For a pass time? I don’t know one child who does what you just suggested nor do I know children who would, on their playground time, chase an iguana to death.
To 1:07 .do you think it means chase them till they die ? It’s just a way of speaking , but they do chase them , and what you mean how I know that ? Well I’m not blind and I pass aspiration drive every day .
I do too but I don’t notice what they’re doing because I’m focused on driving… and why are you paying that close attention to children?
I happen to have children there ,
I agree with you. A good post.
I bet you ain’t so concern about human life , God has put mankind in control of things of the earth ,and he expects us to handle it humanly ,,,but believe me those eguanas has left me without soursop tree ,papaya tree ,sweetpatatos wine ,moringa tree ,my cherry tree ,and everything else that comes in sight . I’m by all means not encouraging cruelty , but as soon as we start something positive ,there’s always someone to try mess it up .. Go get at the gov bout the garbage ,,,,this is to 12:30
Eguanas?
The poster never said to not cull, just that it needs to be done humanely. Which seems to be such a foreign concept to this island since everyone here is just for whatever! Mutilate them, let them live for another couple years with one leg, y’all don’t care!
Here we go, these liberals (smh) Why not come out in the hot sun and have some aspirin and bandages for the iguanas? Can’t you understand these pests has to go or we won’t have no flora and plants left? Even bird eggs these monsters are eating.
They don’t eat birds eggs, because they can’t digest protein. If they did eat birds eggs, why are there so many chickens?
You dodo.
Check with DOE; you will find it is a well-established fact that the green iguanas do eat bird eggs — primarily indigenous bird eggs. I would guess that the ferocity of the wild chicken hens account for their apparent high survival rate.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in528
Adult iguanas are herbivores feeding on foliage, flowers, and fruit. They will occasionally eat animal material such as insects, lizards, and other small animals, nestling birds and eggs.
Juveniles eat more animal material, especially insects, and hatchling green iguanas eat the droppings of adult iguanas to acquire the gut bacteria that help them digest plant material. …..
Damage caused by iguanas includes eating valuable landscape plants, shrubs, and trees, eating orchids and many other flowers, eating dooryard fruit ….. Burrows that they dig undermine sidewalks, seawalls, and foundations. Burrows of iguanas next to seawalls allow erosion and eventual collapse of those seawalls. Droppings of iguanas litter areas where they bask. This is unsightly, causes odor complaints, and is a possible source of salmonella bacteria, a common cause of food poisoning.
Adult iguanas are large powerful animals that can bite, cause severe scratch wounds with their extremely sharp claws, and deliver a painful slap with their powerful tail.
A few years ago when before these new roads where old yatch club road was I saw an iguana eating from the carcass of dead chicken!
They are also eating baby birds form the nest..my neighbor witnessed one take a baby nightingale form the nest..no feathers yet, still downy..the poor parent birds could do nothing..
10 years too late the eradication should have started years ago but I guess better late than never.