For more information about the project, call Bonnie Edwards on the Iguana Hotline (1-345) 917-7744, or Mat Cottam at the Department of Environment (1-345) 949-8469. Mat.Cottam@gov.ky. NOTE: These phone numbers are in the Cayman Islands.

If you would like to make a donation to the project or to the Habitat Fund which is set up to purchase nesting habitat for the Sister Islands Rock Iguana- please click on either of the donation tabs below:

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This fund has been established by the National Trust for the Cayman Islands to purchase nesting habitat for the Sister Islands Rock Iguana (Cyclura nubila caymanensis) on Little Cayman.

The Sister Islands Rock Iguana is under increased threat as island wide development continues. New studies show a dramatic decline in the Little Cayman population faced with a loss of nesting and foraging habitat, skyrocketing road kills and predation by dogs and cats.

Coastal habitats, which are required by these iguanas to breed successfully, have declined sharply due to land clearing and road construction, making land purchase essential for their survival. With support from Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, field work has been carried out and the largest communal nesting site identified. This site has been targeted for purchase as a matter of urgency as it supports the largest subpopulation in the west end of the island.

Fundraising efforts are well underway and through the dedicated efforts of a small group in Little Cayman, almost half the required funds are now in hand. However, with the nesting site comprising 2.74 acres of pristine coastline, the site is very attractive to possible hotel or condo developers and is unlikely to remain on the market for very long. Recognizing the urgent need, and the fact that a great many visitors to Little Cayman are from the United States, the International Reptile Conservation Foundation (IRCF) have once again come to the assistance of the National Trust, and donations to this fund are now tax-deductible for US residents through the IRCF.

Once this purchase is completed, infrastructure and interpretative materials will be provided at the site to explain the life cycle of the iguana, its relationship with native plants and its importance to the island’s biodiversity. This will provide an enhanced nature tourism experience to the island’s visitors as well as a living classroom and educational resource for local children.

We have been training the staff of PEFCA. They know general information about the Abronia, their importance, conservation status, and the work that has been done at the farm. They also know how to take care of the lizards in case we are not there.

We have also begun the reforestation in PEFCA with oak trees. Seedlings for the project are grown in a little nursery garden that we started with the support of a villager; he is being paid for this so that we can contribute to the development of the local community.

In the farms surrounding PEFCA, workers had been cutting down oak trees in spite of orders they had been given by the landowners. However, we have permission to relocate the Abronia from these farms to the protected area.

The first cages for the in situ reproduction of A. campbelli had been arranged for the first breeding group. We also did the radiotelemetry study for A.campbelli so now we have information on summer and winter habitat ranges.

In other news, we have a new specimen of Abronia lythrochila that the local people found and donated to us. Right now we are trying to determine the habitat range of this species.

In recent weeks we have been giving environmental talks to students of an undergraduate degree in Zootechny and a group from an international organization against hunger.

The good news is that it also seems that our sexing using measurements of head width, SVL, tail length, and preanal scale shape was somewhat correct because after the pair finished their copulations I asked Gilberto to use the microchip reader to see which animals were interacting. The pair was made up of Rambo (male) and Wilfreda (female). Wilfreda is the ¨lady¨ given to us by CONAP in February of this year. She showed herself to be healthy during her months with CONAP and since she is the largest female we have, I asked Gilberto to introduce her into one of the breeding pens… and it seems that her sex appeal is still there! Now we just have to wait to see if she is still fertile. We’ve got our fingers crossed! The important event was photographed and filmed by Gilberto, and we hope to have the pictures and video available soon.

In the wild I have observed certain patterns in radiotracked males at the beginning of the breeding season. That first event and the observations we have made in the past week of two males with bite wounds on their heads (probably the product the ritual fighting for females) give us hope that the romantic season for our 10 Beaded Lizards has begun!!!!!!

It’s been a while since my last update and the reserve has been very active. There’s been a lot of planning also, and I think we have a good foundation for starting some serious work. The relationship between the community and the project has grown a lot and we are gaining support from regular people that have been captivated by our work. I feel we are in a really strong position to keep making a difference for conservation, probably at a better pace that at any time before. I’ll try to catch up with ongoing work and then I have some news about upcoming plans.

Let’s start with Marcelito, the baby Heloderma that we’ve pretty much decided to headstart. He seems to be very easy to care for and his chances for long-term survival will be greater if we give him a little boost. So far he’s doing great! He’s been eating readily since the first time and has grown noticeably. He’s in my house, where the only drawback is lower temperatures here in the city than in Zacapa. In his habitat I keep the temperature at a minimum of 24 C; he has a water dish, sandy substrate, some damp moss and a hollow log in which to hide. Obviously he spends most of the time hiding in the log, but he has a noticeably regular period of activity in the afternoon. Besides feeding (which takes a minute per week), I almost never interact with him. I don’t want him to become tame; he’ll need all his natural instincts if he ever has to face a coyote or some other predator.

As discussed, we released the few Ctenosaurs we had. After all, I don’t think we kept a single one for more than 10 days but, as I mentioned some time ago, we suspect some laid eggs somewhere in the enclosure. We never found the eggs, but they hatched! Probably most of the hatchlings escaped (we put some branches over the fence to facilitate this) but after that we adapted the pens for heloderms and from time to time we still see a hatchling Ctenosaur sun bathing inside. No way to tell if there’s more than one, and we haven’t found a way to catch it and get it out, but it has grown a lot so living in the pen can’t be that bad.

The first Heloderma pens were not only ugly but they didn’t allow us to see the animals regularly. There were times when the animals were hiding in a deep burrow for days and we couldn’t get them out or even be sure that they were actually there. The C. palearis pens were much better built to prevent escape, were also bigger, looked much better, and were empty after releasing the iguanas. We thought that with some modifications they would be ideal for heloderms and so far it has been working. Modifications included bringing in a lot of plants, adding a small pond, and making artificial burrows with access via a cement top. With this we were able to handle a group of heloderms in the same pen, but manage feeding individually. Heloderms spend the day in their burrows and have an extended period of activity every afternoon. During heavy or prolonged rain they climb a tree and usually spend the whole night sprawled in the branches, only to hide in their burrows again when the sun heats up the next day. We found that the pens are dryer than desirable after a week without rain, so we just started monitoring humidity with data loggers and adding water as necessary. For the dry season, besides water we’ll need to add a shade cloth to keep the environmental conditions more like those in the forest.

There are two pens with heloderms right now. Each one has two males and three females according to preanal scale sexing by Daniel. This seems like a good ratio and with these conditions my suggestion is to keep these animals together permanently or at least during all of the breeding season. There are other options of course; if we decide to release these animals and radio track them until they become gravid, it has to be done relatively soon.

There have been other activities held as part of the project. The Humane Society supported another round of educational talks in public schools close to the reserve. There were about 600 kids involved from four schools, and as always Tono (Antonio Urbino) excelled. It’s obvious that we are more than welcomed every time we approach a school to arrange any activity; the schedule is never too tight to allow us to fix the date, and after the event they really manage to show how grateful they are. After this series of talks, several people have approached me to arrange other activities. I received a call from another small school that we have yet to visit, so we are making plans. We were not aware of this school before, it’s very small and in a fairly impoverished area, but because it’s part of the same village that has a school of 250+ kids we didn’t anticipate a much smaller school (around 30 kids) in the next neighborhood. But I’m glad they felt comfortable calling to invite us; it’s important to have this closeness with people.

I was talking to a group of teachers about how we are looking to continue the educational program with the older kids, which may find Chepe Mazacuata talks a bit childish. Middle school kids have a much better potential to learn, but keeping their attention is a lot more difficult. I mentioned that we could arrange a visit for every grade to the reserve and give them an interpretive tour. Kids in public schools are not used to school trips, so this would be a novelty, plus a carefully prepared tour can make for a great experience. They seemed to like the idea, but it was only an idea, and these were not even teachers from middle school. Looks like the word spread a little bit too fast! A couple of weeks later a teacher called me telling me that she was planning a field trip with her grade and asked if we were available for the next week. A group of 19 kids aged 14 to 17 made me a bit nervous, but it seemed like a great opportunity that we couldn’t waste. I met them at 6:30 in the village to start walking, and one hour later we were in the reserve.  Once there, we had a simple activity to teach them a bit about natural selection as a part of the history of our forest, and I talked about how this is the reason we always say this forest is unique. Then we walked through the forest and stopped to talk about adaptations to the dry environment. A further stop was to talk about what we biologists do there (here we set a camera trap) and the last stop was next to the pens to talk about heloderms. Then we had a snack at the house during which Wilfreda (the big Heloderma confiscated and donated to us) was fed an egg since none of the kids had ever see one of these animals eating (nor moving as they let me know). Next I showed them a rattlesnake. For a couple of hours I was answering all kind of questions; sparking interest was a lot easier than I thought after all. Although at the beginning of the day most kids looked very shy, by snack time they had gotten up enough confidence to ask if they could hold Wilfreda to take pictures. Unfortunately, I had to leave at about 11:30 to be in the city for an exam, so I missed the rest of the day. They made a fire, cooked lunch, played football, and left at about 5:00 pm. Of course, Gilberto and their teacher supervised everything. Ideally, we would have had a pickup to transport everyone at once. Gilberto was helping with the car, but at least the teacher and I walked all the distance before Gilberto was able to give us a ride. I’m really hoping to arrange this kind of trip for every grade next year. It has a minimum cost per kid, and they really learned something and had the chance to ask questions while having a great time. The key is to have small groups and plenty of time for each member of the group.

And then another woman from the other village phoned and told me about a kind of fair they were having in which they would like to have a talk about ecology given by Zootropic. Again, it was easy to say yes and we were there last Saturday. It was nothing spectacular, just a regular talk, but as always a live Heloderma steals the show and sparks many questions that are a joy to answer.

Another subject I wanted to write about is a spontaneous little group of volunteers that is forming around the reserve. While not a formal thing, some of my friends are dedicating some time to figuring out things that they can do to help the project grow. Some are willing to donate small amounts of money to make things happen (for example, the school trip, snacks + gasoline, was covered this way). From this, the idea of creating a website for the reserve has grown, and a project about bats is about to start.

As for the website, everything has gone very fast with a nice design almost ready and tons of content written. Project Heloderma and Palearis websites already exist, but the reserve and the house are intended for the whole dry forest ecosystem. We want to showcase everything that’s happening in the reserve, and since this includes projects with orchids, bats, and trees, we realized we may benefit from having a website. We also need content in Spanish. The reserve has made it to the newspaper a couple of times this year, the last time in a very well known weekly supplement, creating lots of interest that demands having online presence. Along the same line, there’s interest in producing video content to put on the internet in the form of small documentaries and other things to let the world know about the reserve.

The bat project is being developed by one of these volunteers, and it is going to include research and community involvement. We haven’t reviewed the protocol yet, so the project still lacks final approval. There are other ideas floating right now that may materialize soon.

Our knowledge about the reserve has continued to grow, with some other species records and nice observations. New herp records include: Masticophis mentovarius, Conophis lineatus, Basiliscus vittatus, Oxybelis aeneus, and Craugastor inachus. Gilberto spotted a Margay (Leopardus wiedii), which has to be one of the coolest animals in the area. Ctenosaura palearis hatchlings are a common sight right now, much more common than other iguanids this time of the year. This year 16 heloderms have been reported, which is already a little above average. Among plants, the most important has been a new orchid record, a very nice Habenaria.

So basically this is it. I think this is a fair summary of what has been going on. I’m adding some photos of the recent activities and the pens. Hope you like them.

We gave our second talk within the natural habitat of Abronia meledona; teachers and kids were very excited.

We also gave our first talk within the natural habitat of Abronia fimbriata.

And in one particular area within the natural habitat of Abronia frosti we had to have a teacher translate our talk from Spanish into Chuj, which is the most commonly spoken language.

As you remember last time I wrote, we were defining the conservation areas within the property that one of the landowners donated to us for conservation. Right now our strategy involves reforestation efforts to increase connectivity and areas for reintroduction.

This weekend we are going to acquire our third A. frosti individual, the one that the villager’s found. This individual may be used for in situ reproduction or it may be released in the future within an area where we can ensure its safety.

We moved some of the Abronia to new cages and they were acclimating to simulations of their natural habitat.

Right now we are preparing for the two weeks of telemetry in September.

That’s all for now

Monica

Gecko Symposium 2011

Exo Terra is proud to announce the Exo Terra Gecko Symposium, which will take place at 7:00 PM on Friday August 19th, 2011 at the Daytona Beach Hilton Hotel. This free event is sponsored by Exo Terra in conjunction with the National Reptile Breeders Expo, which is being held at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. The symposium will feature talks from some of the world’s foremost gecko experts and published authors.

The schedule includes talks from herpetologists and authors Patrick Schönecker, Hans-Peter Berghof, Emmanuel Van Heygen (The Geckos of Madagascar, the Seychelles, Comoros and Mascarene Islands), Jon Boone, Mirko Barts (The Geckos of Southern Africa), Neil Simpson, Roland Zobel (The Geckos of Australia), Philippe de Vosjoli and Allen Repashy (The Geckos of New Caledonia).

Attendees will receive an exclusive Exo Terra Gift Bag (while supplies last). The gift bag includes a limited edition Exo Terra 2011 Gecko Symposium T-Shirt, as well as other prizes.

Read all the details and register here.

Daniel Hamilton, Blue Iguana Volunteer

As reported by authorities recently in local media, a young international volunteer with the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme passed away suddenly last Friday.

Daniel Hamilton was 21 years old. He was pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Wildlife at Purdue University, Indiana. He spoke of a lifelong fascination with reptiles, and how when he first saw Blue Iguanas at an exhibit in the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, he knew he wanted to play some part in their rescue.

Daniel’s volunteer application was outstanding – he had done fieldwork with salamanders in state forests in Indiana, had learned techniques like radio tracking, tagging and navigation, and his enthusiasm sparkled in his communications as he prepared to come to Grand Cayman.

In his short time with us, Daniel launched himself wholeheartedly into the work of the Programme, first at the captive breeding facility in the QE II Botanic Park, then in the Salina Reserve inland from the Queen’s Highway, and finally in the new Reserve in Colliers, East End. There, he and two other international volunteers were preparing for this year’s release of Blue Iguanas, scheduled to take place in July.

The staff and current volunteers with the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, and the Council and staff of the National Trust for the Cayman Islands are deeply shocked and saddened by Daniel’s unexpected passing, and extend their heart-felt sympathy and condolences to his family and friends. Thanks and recognition are also extended to the emergency services who did everything possible to save Daniel.

The community’s expressions of sympathy are sincerely appreciated. We invite anyone who wishes to send condolences to email birpvols@gmail.com , by mail to BIRP, P.O. Box 10308, Grand Cayman, KY1-1003, or post on the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blue-Iguana-Recovery-Programme/183865225017 , and the BIRP will arrange for these thoughts to reach Daniel’s family.