Ep. 70 - Saving the Blue Iguana

The Field Guides

This month, we head to the tropics and meet the Blue Iguana of the Cayman Islands! This endangered lizard is found nowhere else on the globe save for the island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean, and just two decades ago, it’s likely there were fewer than 25 animals remaining in the wild. This was a species that was functionally extinct, but thanks to the herculean efforts of a dedicated group of people, the Blue Iguana (Cyclura lewisi) has been brought back from the brink, with over 1000 iguanas now roaming the dry, rocky forests of Grand Cayman. In July of 2024 Bill traveled there to interview Fred Burton, the man many people credit as the main driver behind the effort to save this endemic species.

This episode was recorded on July 25, 2024 at the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, North Side, Grand Cayman

Episode Notes and Links

Find ourt more about conservation of the Blue Iguana by visiting the National Trust for the Cayman Islands.

If you want to support efforts to help the Blue Iguana, you can donate here.

Check out Fred’s book, The Little Blue Book: A Short History of the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana

If you ever find yourself in Grand Cayman, we can’t recommend enough that you visit the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, home to the Blue Iguana captive breeding program.

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Works Cited

Burton, F.J., 2004. Battling extinction: A view forward for the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana (Cyclura lewisi). Iguana, 11(4), pp.232-237.

Burton, F.J., 2005. Restoring a new wild population of Blue Iguanas (Cyclura lewisi) in the Salina Reserve, Grand Cayman. Iguana, 12(3), pp.166-174.

Burton, F.J., 2011. Population restoration for a critically endangered reptile—the Grand Cayman blue iguana (Cyclura lewisi). Reptiles Australasia, 1, pp.35-44.

Chan, N., Shen, Z., Mannion, A., Kurnick, S., Popescu, I.S., Burton, F.J., Calle, P.P. and Fox, J.G., 2021. Helicobacter cyclurae sp. nov., isolated from endangered blue iguanas (Cyclura lewisi). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, p.676682.