Ctenosaura bakeri

Appearance

The Utila iguana has a grey-brown to black coloring when young, the only species of spiny-tail iguana with such a dark color when young. Other members of the genus have a green or yellow coloring when young and turn darker with age. As this animal matures it can be a blue or light gray in color, depending on heat conditions or even the animal's temper.

It is the smallest of the three species of iguana found on Utila, and unique among spiny-tailed iguanas as it is born a dark color as opposed to bright green or yellow.

Males achieve a maximum total length (among them tail) of 76 centimeters (30 in), while females are typically 30% smaller at 56 centimeters (22 in) total length.

Range and habitat

Endemic to Utila, an island off the northern Honduras coast, Ctenosaura bakeri is an inhabitant of 8 square kilometres (3.1 sq mi) of mangrove forests. Unique among iguanids and rare among reptiles, it is believed that C. Bakeri was pushed into the mangrove swamps due to competition from the larger, more aggressive C. Similis, that typically inhabits the drier habitats on Utila. From evolutionary and ecological perspectives, inhabiting brackish mangrove forests entails very specific adaptations of diet, behavior, and resource utilization.

Ctenosaura bakeri, also known as the Utila spiny-tailed iguana, Baker's spinytail iguana, swamper or wishiwilly del suampo, is a critically endangered species of spinytail iguana endemic to the island of Utila, one of the Islas de la Bahía off the coast of Honduras in the Caribbean. As a result, the Iguana Research and Breeding Station was built in April 1997 with the help and funds of various organizations such as the Frankfurt Zoological Society, the Senckenberg Nature Research Society, AFE-COHDEFOR (State Forestry Administration-Honduran Forestry Development Corporation), BICA (Bay Islands Conservation Association) and the National Autonomous University of Honduras.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

Like most iguanids, Ctenosaura bakeri is primarily herbivorous, eating flowers, leaves, stems, and fruit, but they will opportunistically eat smaller animals, eggs, and arthropods that inhabit the mangroves. As the Utila iguana cannot successfully lay its eggs in the mangrove swamps, the gravid females are forced to migrate to nearby sandy beaches in order to bury their clutches of eggs so they can incubate in the hot sun.

After digging their nest burrows and laying their eggs, the females abandon the nests and return to the mangroves. It is arboreal and primarily herbivorous, although it can be an opportunistic carnivore.

In crisis

Brought to the brink of extinction by the 1990s due to hunting, it was brought back to international attention by German herpetologist Dr. Although several zoos and wildlife associations have instituted programs for the iguanas on Utila, the species still finds itself threatened due to overhunting and may face more of a threat in the form of habitat loss. Extreme conservation efforts are in place to try to prevent this species from going extinct.

Gunther Köhler found the species at the brink of extinction, perhaps even functionally extinct in the wild as of 1994 due to overhunting and its restricted habitat. This species currently has an estimated wild population of 10,000 animals in 2–3 subpopulations, but is greatly threatened by loss of habitat, as mangrove forests are being used as garbage dump sites and deforested for the construction of homes, resorts, and marinas.

Ctenosaura bakeri is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Ctenosaura bakeri, Wikidata item Q1409488. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.