The Anegada rock iguana is not a handsome animal. The gray lizard can grow up to 5 feet/1.5 meters long and has a pronounced spike running down its back. So why are some people on this small British Virgin Island trying so hard to save it?
As it turns out, the rock iguana, indigenous only to Anegada, is seriously endangered. A recent study showed that only about 200 remain in the wild on the island. And this particular type of iguana is - in iguana circles - historically significant. It's considered to be the so-called "mother species" to many subspecies of iguanas found in the Caribbean basin, according to Cleveland Sam, a spokesman for the BVI's National Parks Trust.
The trust, with funding from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the World Wildlife Fund, has embarked on a yearlong study of the iguana and an extensive attempt to save the species. To this end, the trust has built a facility dubbed Head Start, where juvenile rock iguanas can be raised without being preyed upon by their No. 1 nemesis: feral cats.
In addition to the Head Start facility, the trust is preparing an environmental campaign that will be distributed to BVI schoolchildren, training senior staffers on iguana husbandry and looking into the feasibility of eradicating stray cats.
"They are a very, very ugly animal," says Sam. "But they are still an important species."
Posted online 01/01/99.
