Turks and Caicos rock iguana

The lizard or snake

This small iguana can reach 30 in (76 cm) and becomes mature at seven years and may live for twenty.

Range and habitat

The Turks and Caicos rock iguana inhabits small cays, but has been reduced to less than 5% of its original range largely due to the introduction of predators. 2,000 iguanas are the only land creatures that inhabit Little Water Cay. To promote tourism on Little Water Cay, a boardwalk has been built throughout the island. Tourists can take a tour of the island, along this boardwalk, but are not permitted to step off it.

The Turks and Caicos rock iguana is a lizard endemic to the Turks and Caicos islands. Little Water Cay is now a nature reserve and neither dogs nor cats are permitted on the island to ensure the survival of the critically endangered species.

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

Diet

Like all Cyclura species, the Turks and Caicos rock iguana is primarily herbivorous, consuming leaves, flowers, and fruits from over 58 different plant species. This diet is very rarely supplemented with insects, mollusks, crustaceans, arachnids, lizards, and carrion.

This iguana is mostly herbivorous, but supplements this by adding some animal matter to its diet.

In crisis

At one time numerous, these iguanas have been depleted by introduced predators, mainly cats and dogs. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated them as endangered. Various conservation efforts are being undertaken, and some iguanas have been relocated to uninhabited islets in an effort to prevent them from becoming extinct.

Although Little Water Cay is home to over 2,000 Turks and Caicos rock iguanas, they have been wiped out from the other cays in their former range. In 2000 scientists from the San Diego Zoo's division of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES), under the direction of Conservation Research Fellow Dr.

Turks and Caicos rock 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 Turks and Caicos rock iguana, Wikidata item Q290131. 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.