Cayman's imperiled iguanas on the rebound

QUEEN ELIZABETH II BOTANIC PARK, Cayman Islands (AP) - The blue iguana has lived on the rocky shores of Grand Cayman for at least a couple of million years, preening like a miniature turquoise dragon as it soaked in the sun or sheltered inside crevices. Yet having survived everything from tropical hurricanes to ice ages, it was driven to near-extinction by dogs, cats and cars.

Now, though, a breeding program some see as a global model has worked better than any had hoped to dream for a species that numbered less than a dozen in the wild just a decade ago, preyed upon by escaped pets and struggling to survive in a habitat eroded by the advance of human settlement.

Roughly 700 blazing blue iguanas breed and roam free in protected woodlands on the eastern side of Grand Cayman, a 22-mile-long speck in the western Caribbean that is the only place where the critically endangered animals are found in the wild.

"The kind of results that we've gotten show that it's practical and realistic to say you can restore a population of iguanas from practically nothing, just so long as you can capture the genetic variety from the beginning," said Fred Burton, the unsalaried director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Program, a partnership linking the islands' National Trust to local and overseas agencies and groups.

In a corner of the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, the "founders," or genetically diverse, wild iguanas captured for the breeding program, mate when the mood strikes in 40-foot-wide pens featuring the rocks, shrubs and trees of their natural habitat. One couple, dubbed "Mad Max" and "Biter," are free to roam outside the pens, scampering after ripened noni, a pungent, potato-sized fruit.

On a recent day at the 65-acre garden and woodland preserve, the adult iguanas were shedding skin, which resembles thin, dry paper, revealing a brilliant turquoise underneath. The primarily herbivorous creatures, which have crimson eyes, grow to roughly five feet long, weigh over 25 pounds and are at their bluest when they get excited.

Near the breeding pens, wood-and-wire cages hold the founders' young descendants, which are outfitted with transponder tags embedded beneath their skin. The iguanas are only released into the botanical park and the 625-acre Salina Reserve after they reach two years of age and are big enough to defend themselves from rats, snakes and most feral cats.

Burton and others concluded in 2001 that young blue iguanas should be released into the wild next to rough-hewn wooden shelters with tight passageways that mimic the rock holes and tree cavities where they naturally shelter from predators. The first year of that experiment, 100 percent of the young survived.

"When we started, we didn't know anything, so for years we just let the iguanas loose and we'd never see half of them again. A year after we came up with this very low-tech method of anchoring iguanas to the park, we found all of them were still living," Burton said, adding that young iguanas soon outgrow the wooden shelters and hardwired behavior kicks in, driving them to make homes without any assistance

Arthur C. Echternacht, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Tennessee, said the Grand Cayman program has succeeded by building unusually strong relationships with international scientists as well as support from local politicians and citizens. He also credits the tenacity and organization of Burton, a soft-spoken man who has been a steward of the Cayman Islands' environment since he moved to the U.K. Caribbean territory in 1979.

"Although Fred can seem to be a rather low-key, unexcitable Brit, he is passionate about the iguanas, very persuasive, and incredibly persistent," Echternacht said in an email.

Early on, Burton sought and received the assistance of international conservation groups, zoos and businesses in the effort. Financing and expertise, including veterinary support from the organizations has furthered the program's success.

John Binns, of the Tucson, Arizona-based International Reptile Conservation Foundation, said the basic infrastructure and steady focus of the Blue Iguana Breeding Program is "really a model on how to correctly restore a species year after year."