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  • BBC Wildlife Magazine

    BACK FROM THE BRINK

    Jan 13, 2022 5 minutes
    By TAMARA HINSON

    Blue iguana

    Carribean success story following a chance find

    ALL OTHER IGUANAS LOOK RATHER BORING once you’ve clapped eyes on this beauty, only found in the Cayman Islands and once on a fast-track to extinction due to the combined forces of development, human disturbance, increasing road traffic and introduced animals. By 2002, just 15 or so remained.

    The reptile’s fortunes changed when Cambridge University student Fred Burton took up a post in the islands’ Mosquito Research and Control Unit in the 1980s and stumbled across one individual while out on a survey. Smitten, he dedicated his work life to protecting this iconic animal through a breeding programme launched in 1990. In 2018, the 1,000th blue iguana was released into the wild. With the population restored, work is now focussing on conservation.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Tamara is a freelance travel

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