26 September 2006. At the recent meeting for Project Heloderma held at the Zootropic office in Guatemala City, Guatemala, John Binns, IRCF, opened a separate discussion about Ctenosaura palearis (the Paleate Spiny-tailed Iguana, also known as the Guatemalan Black Iguana), proposing the inclusion of a recovery action plan for this species under Zootropic’s umbrella. Attending the meeting along with John Binns were Rodrigo Botran, Luis Alvarado, and Daniel Ariano from Zootropic, and Brad Lock from Zoo Atlanta.

Ctenosaura palearis appears on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered and its know distribution range lies within the same area of the Motagua Valley as the Guatemalan Beaded Lizard. Specifically, the recovery action plan would involve including: C. palearis in Zootropic’s educational program for Heloderma, the development of a research component with the aid of college students, and a primary focus on utilizing the facility proposed for breeding Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti to raise C. palearis for repatriation as soon as possible.

The proposal to include the Guatemalan Black Iguana was unanimously accepted. Since John returned from Guatemala, Daniel Ariano and field assistant Gilberto Salazar have located four males and one female C. palearis and are currently monitoring these animals.

Paola Coti, a Guatemalan undergraduate college student has already taken the initial steps to develop her research program (Daniel Ariano is her advisor) to determine distribution, ecology and the conservation status of C. palearis. Stesha Pasachnik, University of Tennessee, will be assisted by Zootropic to obtain permits to take C. palearis tissue-samples during her 2007 visit to the Motagua Valley. Stesha is working on Ctenosaura genetics.

The major decision from the meeting was the approval to purchase a 285-acre plot of land ($30,000) as a reserve and breeding facility site for both the Guatemalan Beaded Lizard and the Guatemalan Black Iguana. Some of the basic topics discussed were construction of the facility with the aid of local labor, facility location at the base of the property, on-going research to determine breeding strategies, and long-term ideas about a visitor attraction such as the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana Breeding and headstarting facility.

Within a short few months, where no action was being taken to save this species, there is now hope through the efforts of Zootropic. Currently this is an unfunded project and the ongoing work is being conducted without compensation.