Leaping lizards!
Baby boom for imperiled reptile
TONY PERRY
REPORTING FROM SAN DIEGO
A baby boom is underway at the San Diego Zoo among the Grand Cayman blue iguanas, one of the world’s most endangered lizards.
Since 2007, the zoo has been part of an international effort to save the blue iguana. Despite elaborate efforts at providing the right environment, results have been modest: three or four hatchlings a year.
But in the past week, nine blue iguana hatchlings were reported at the zoo…
Jeff Lemm, the zoo’s research coordinator for lizards, credits the changes that he made for the younger of the…two breeding females. She had never had a live hatchling.
“I tweaked the nest situation,” Lemm said Thursday. ”She fell for it.”
As this spring’s breeding season had approached, Lemm was not worried about the male stud-lizards, Big Daddy and Bluey.
But Lemm was unsure about a young unnamed female selected as Bluey’s mate.
To provide her with motivation to lay eggs after she and Bluey got together, Lemm found a hollowed-out tree stump, filled it with soft, warm dirt and bathed it in warm light.
The female burrowed in and laid a clutch of eggs. Tension mounted as Lemm and others waited weeks for the results.
“I saw the eggs and said, ‘Please be fertile,’ ” Lemm said. “And when we got the hatchlings, it was beautiful. We were all very excited.”
Two of the eggs were fertile, and in the past week, out came two hatchlings.
Added to the seven from an older, more reliable female - Big Daddy’s mate - it gave the zoo more hatchlings than in any previous year.
Many of the Caribbean’s lizard species are endangered but none so much as the blue iguana on Grand Cayman, a British territory south of Cuba…
…they are vulnerable to cars, snakes and other predators, livestock and an occasional hurricane. [And introduced cats and dogs eat their eggs.]
[…]
By 2002, the population had dwindled to a few dozen. So the Blue Iguana Recovery Program on the island teamed up with American zoos in a rescue effort.
From article sidebar, more information on the blue iguana:
The critically endangered lizard is native to Grand Cayman, but the unmanaged wild population is estimated at just 10 to 20 individuals. There is a preserve on the island where more than 500 iguanas have been released.
Color: Ranges from gray to green to pale blue to bright turquoise blue. The bright blue is more noticeable in males and during breeding season.
Size: Largest native land animal on Grand Cayman, growing up to 5 feet long from nose to tail. It can weigh up to 30 pounds.
Diet: Like all iguanas, primarily vegetarian. Consumes leaves, flowers and fruits of 45 plant species. Has also been observed to eat insects and crabs.
Lifespan: One of the longest living lizards. One captive specimen lived almost 70 years.
--From Los Angeles Times article, 9/19/11. Full article is here.
TONY PERRY
REPORTING FROM SAN DIEGO
A baby boom is underway at the San Diego Zoo among the Grand Cayman blue iguanas, one of the world’s most endangered lizards.
Since 2007, the zoo has been part of an international effort to save the blue iguana. Despite elaborate efforts at providing the right environment, results have been modest: three or four hatchlings a year.
But in the past week, nine blue iguana hatchlings were reported at the zoo…
Jeff Lemm, the zoo’s research coordinator for lizards, credits the changes that he made for the younger of the…two breeding females. She had never had a live hatchling.
“I tweaked the nest situation,” Lemm said Thursday. ”She fell for it.”
As this spring’s breeding season had approached, Lemm was not worried about the male stud-lizards, Big Daddy and Bluey.
But Lemm was unsure about a young unnamed female selected as Bluey’s mate.
To provide her with motivation to lay eggs after she and Bluey got together, Lemm found a hollowed-out tree stump, filled it with soft, warm dirt and bathed it in warm light.
The female burrowed in and laid a clutch of eggs. Tension mounted as Lemm and others waited weeks for the results.
“I saw the eggs and said, ‘Please be fertile,’ ” Lemm said. “And when we got the hatchlings, it was beautiful. We were all very excited.”
Two of the eggs were fertile, and in the past week, out came two hatchlings.
Added to the seven from an older, more reliable female - Big Daddy’s mate - it gave the zoo more hatchlings than in any previous year.
Many of the Caribbean’s lizard species are endangered but none so much as the blue iguana on Grand Cayman, a British territory south of Cuba…
…they are vulnerable to cars, snakes and other predators, livestock and an occasional hurricane. [And introduced cats and dogs eat their eggs.]
[…]
By 2002, the population had dwindled to a few dozen. So the Blue Iguana Recovery Program on the island teamed up with American zoos in a rescue effort.
From article sidebar, more information on the blue iguana:
The critically endangered lizard is native to Grand Cayman, but the unmanaged wild population is estimated at just 10 to 20 individuals. There is a preserve on the island where more than 500 iguanas have been released.
Color: Ranges from gray to green to pale blue to bright turquoise blue. The bright blue is more noticeable in males and during breeding season.
Size: Largest native land animal on Grand Cayman, growing up to 5 feet long from nose to tail. It can weigh up to 30 pounds.
Diet: Like all iguanas, primarily vegetarian. Consumes leaves, flowers and fruits of 45 plant species. Has also been observed to eat insects and crabs.
Lifespan: One of the longest living lizards. One captive specimen lived almost 70 years.
--From Los Angeles Times article, 9/19/11. Full article is here.