Times of the Islands Spring 2021

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green pages Newsletter of the Department of Environment & Coastal Resources Head office: Church Folly, Grand Turk, tel 649 946 2801 • fax 649 946 1895 • Astwood Street, South Caicos, tel 649 946 3306 • fax 946 3710 • National Environmental Centre, Lower Bight Road, Providenciales Parks Division, tel 649 941 5122 • fax 649 946 4793 Fisheries Division, tel 649 946 4017 • fax 649 946 4793 email environment@gov.tc or dema.tci@gmail.com • web https://www.gov.tc/decr/ B NAQQI MANCO When compared to the green iguana, native Turks & Caicos rock iguanas have stouter, heavier bodies with a tail only as long as the body and a dark khaki-green or blue-grey colour. The Green Invader New reporting hotline for green iguana sightings. By B Naqqi Manco, Acting Assistant Director of Environmental Research & Development, DECR Our very special endemic Turks & Caicos rock iguanas Cyclura carinata was recently down-listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) category from Critically Endangered to Endangered. This is due largely to decades of hard work by numerous institutions, including the San Diego Zoo, Caribbean Wildlife Foundation, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Turks & Caicos National Trust, Department of Environment & Coastal Resources, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environmental Health, Ports Authority and others. 36 www.timespub.tc
green pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources While their numbers have increased in some areas, a new threat to the rock iguanas has come to the Turks & Caicos Islands in the form of a distant relative. The green iguana Iguana iguana has already become widespread on many other Caribbean islands where it is a serious threat to wildlife and infrastructure. Green iguanas are invasive in the Turks & Caicos Islands and differ from our endemic Turks & Caicos rock iguanas by being overall larger with much longer bodies and tails, and usually a brighter green colour. Native to Central and South America, they pose a serious threat to our unique ecosystems and especially to the endemic rock iguanas. They carry a bacterial infection that is lethal to rock iguanas, they can cause genetic pollution to rock iguanas by hybridization, and they can also outcompete rock iguanas for food and resources. Unlike our rock iguanas which breed once a year and only lay 6–8 eggs, green iguanas breed year-round and can lay over 70 eggs in a clutch. Green iguanas have been sighted on Providenciales in in Grace Bay, as well as near Venetian Road, Leeward and South Dock and on Grand Turk around the airport and South Base. For years the Cayman Islands have been battling green iguanas, which severely threaten their endemic blue rock iguana Cyclura lewisi and Little Cayman rock iguana Cyclura nubila caymanensis. Unfortunately, the speed at which green iguanas breed has been hard to overcome. In 2019, over one million green iguanas were culled in a massive conservation effort, but over 100,000 are believed to have remained, so they still outnumber the native iguana species by 1000 times. Green iguanas find their way into TCI mostly through imported materials—especially live plants—from south Florida and Hispaniola, where they are also problematically invasive. Their eggs, laid in the loose, moist potting mix around plant roots in nurseries in other countries, can hatch after the plants arrive in TCI. SAND DOLLAR IMAGES When compared to the native TCI rock iguana, the Invasive green iguanas have an overall longer and more slender shape, a tail much longer than the body, and usually a bright green colour. Times of the Islands Spring 2021 37
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