On Tuesday February 9th, the Anguilla National Trust (ANT) and other key stakeholders journeyed to Prickly Pear in a bid to save the engendered Lesser Antillean Iguana (Iguana Delicatissima).
Over the last year, the ANT has been working with Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Fauna & Flora International, with support from the Department of Environment, the Department of Agriculture, and Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, on a Lesser Antillean Iguana species recovery project. This project was funded in 2015 by the International Iguana Foundation and the Rufford Small Grants for Nature Programme. Those funds were used to estimate the population sizes of the native Lesser Antillean Iguana as well as the invasive green iguana. ANT was also able to capture and tag a number of iguanas from which it took genetic samples. The iguanas were held on the Department of Agriculture grounds. Genetic testing confirmed that twelve of those captured were native iguanas.
The National Trust conducted site assessments of the cays and identified Dog Island and Pricky Pear East as most appropriate for the reintroduction of the Lesser Antillean Iguana. It was able to secure support from the Prickly Pear East landowners, and received additional funds from the Mohammed bin Zayed Conservation Fund and the International Iguana Foundation to facilitate the reintroduction.
Execuitive Director of the Anguilla National Trust, Farah Mukhida, spoke to The Anguillian newspaper: “We are very pleased that we are now in a position to reintroduce ten of the twelve iguanas onto Prickly Pear. We understand that this type of work (a reintroduction) is a first for this part of the region, and we’re excited about the contribution we could be making to biodiversity conservation in Anguilla and the Caribbean”.
The iguanas were outfitted with radio transmitters to aid in the monitoring of the reintroduced population. The transmitters will remain on them for approximately 2.5 months after which they will be removed.
Anguilla provides critical habitat for the Endangered Lesser Antillean Iguana, Iguana delicatissima. It was recently placed on Schedule 1 of the Government of Anguilla’s Biodiversity and Heritage Conservation Act as a species of conservation concern. This species is now restricted to just six island territories in the Lesser Antilles. Considered one of the most endangered reptile species in the world, they have already been extirpated in the twin island territories of Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis.
It was first reported in 1995 that Anguilla’s population of Iguana delicatissima was under significant threat due to habitat alteration and land development, and further threatened by the introduced green iguana which competes and hybridizes with Iguana delicatissima. Experiences in Guadeloupe, Martinique and other countries showed that when green iguanas are present, Iguana delicatissima typically disappear within a few decades.
In 1997, the Anguilla National Trust and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) published a report Conservation Assessment of the Lesser Antillean Iguana, Iguana delicatissima, on Anguilla. Assessment results at that time indicated that Anguilla’s Iguana delicatissima population was below the environmental carrying capacity and that intervention would be required to prevent the local extirpation of the species.
Recommendations outlined to alleviate threats, and to support species conservation, included raising awareness, regional networking and information sharing, long-term species population monitoring, control of invasive species, habitat protection and restoration, establishment of a head-start facility, and the establishment of satellite populations on Anguilla’s offshore cays.
