Endangered
Rhinoceros iguana
Cyclura cornuta
The rhinoceros iguana is an endangered species of iguana that is endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and its surrounding islands.
Appearance
A large lizard, they vary in length from 60 to 136 centimetres (24 to 54 in), and skin colours range from a steely grey to a dark green and even brown. Their name derives from the bony-plated pseudo-horn or outgrowth that resembles the horn of a rhinoceros on the iguana's snout.
Range and habitat
There are moderately dense populations in the southeastern region of Haiti and its offshore islands, among them the brackish lake of Étang Saumâtre, as well as the Dominican hypersaline Lake Enriquillo and its lake island, Isla Cabritos. Populations in Haiti are even more endangered due to deforestation, poaching for bushmeat, and human clearing practices. Even though not restricted to one single habitat, the iguanas are found most abundantly in scrub woodlands of the Hispaniolan dry forests (characterized by xeric, rocky terrain of eroded limestone with minimal flora), coastal terraces, lowlands of the mainland, plus several offshore islands and small cays, all with slightly different habitat types.
The rhinoceros iguana is an endangered species of iguana that is endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and its surrounding islands.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
It is oftentimes a warning to not come any closer, as well as to communicate (with females) their desire to mate.
In crisis
International trade in the species is regulated under the Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Illegal logging, competition from domestic grazers (cows, pigs, goats), predation on young by invasive species, limestone mining, harvesting for the pet trade, hunting for bushmeat, pollution, and wildfires are all manmade threats to the rhinoceros iguana's survival.
Rhinoceros iguana is 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 Rhinoceros iguana, Wikidata item Q907252. 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.
