Blues reported in Czech zoo
(CNS): Officials from the Cayman Islands Blue Iguana Recovery Programme are investigating reports that a zoo in the Czech capital, Prague, is claiming to have acquired pair of the critically endangered rare Grand Cayman iguanas. According to reports on the internet, the zoo has had the blues on show since January and got them from a Hungarian dealer. The zoo’s director, Miroslav Bobek, reportedly spoke with local journalists earlier this year and revealed that it was the only zoo in Europe to have the rare iguanas. "From our point of view, the acquisition is a treasure comparable with finding a pot with ancient coins," said Petr Velenský, who is in charge of reptiles in the Prague zoo. (Left: a Blue Iguana in Cayman)
According to local news reports, the two iguanas were christened at the ceremonial opening of the 80th season of the Prague Zoo in March. The city’s mayor, Bohuslav Svoboda, is said to have named the blues Faust and Margarita. Reports also revealed that the zoo had been seeking to acquire the Grand Cayman iguanas for more than ten years and the director said he hoped they would multiply.
Fred Burton, the director of the recovery programme, confirmed on Monday that contact has been made with the zoo in Prague and he is now awaiting a response from the local iguana specialist.
“We hope to find out who the Hungarian breeder is and where he got his stock from. If the zoo did due diligence and has a respectable association with that breeder, it should be possible to get to the bottom of this,” herevealed.
The Grand Cayman Blue Iguana is indigenous to Grand Cayman and is the most endangered iguana on earth. It was driven to the brink of extinction, with only about a dozen surviving from the original wild population by 2002, as a result of a combination of habitat loss, road kills and the deaths caused by free-roaming dogs and feral cats.
Although these human-caused pressures have led to the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana being endangered, the recovery programme has revealed that it can be saved. The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme is making remarkable strides and there is great hope for the future of the Blue Iguana and its extraordinary wild habitat.
As a result of the conservation work there is now a free-roaming subpopulation in the QE II Botanic Park and the Salina Reserve of almost 300 individuals. The continued main threat to the recovery of this incredible creature is habitat destruction. Land clearance within remnant habitat is occurring for agricultural purposes, road construction and for real estate development and speculation. Conversion of traditional croplands to cattle pasture is also eliminating secondary Blue Iguana habitat.
See internet articles relating to zoo’s acquisition here and here.
Category: Science and Nature
It is in the best interests of the ‘blue’ that they are being used to breed all over the world…It safeguards the future of the ‘blue’.
Read on wikimedia that there are many Zoos in the US that have Cayman Islands Blue Iguanas, there are breeding programs outside Cayman in case of a drastic problem here…a catastrophic loss of all or most breeding stock because of Hurricane etc…apparently 225 registered in a studbook….(also some comments elsewhere that there are some pure Blue Iguanas in Europe)
Interesting reading re hybrids and pure varieties….
http://readerfeedback.labs.wikimedia.org/wiki/Blue_Iguana
Recovery efforts
In 1990 the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA)designated the genus Cyclura as their highest priority for conservation.[38] Their first project was an in situ captive breeding program for the Blue Iguana, which at the time was the most critically endangered of all the species of Cyclura.[38]
One of the early difficulties encountered was that the captive stock of the early 1990s was found not to be pure.[14][38] It was discovered through DNA analysis that the captive population contained a number of animals that were hybrids with C. nubila caymanensis.[14][38] The program contains only pure specimens, as these hybrids were sterilized by means of hemipenectomies and hence excluded.[13][18][38] This program was created to determine the exact genealogies of the limited gene pool of the remaining animals and DNA analysis revealed that the entire North American captive population was descended from a single pair of animals.[38] After five years of research two captive breeding populations were established and are managed as a single unit, with cross-breeding between the populations to promote genetic diversity.[38]
As a hedge against disaster striking the Blue Iguana population on Grand Cayman, an off-island captive population was established in 25 zoos in the USA.[18][38] A minimum of 20 founder lines represented by at least 225 individuals is being maintained by captive breeding and recorded in a studbook for the species by Tandora Grant of the San Diego Zoo‘s Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES).[18][20][38] The Indianapolis Zoo has had success with breeding the Blue Iguana in captivity twice since the year 2000.[39]
If you google Blue Iguanas, you will find quite a few dealers including one in California. What I found interesting was that on the about person page it said this person is a journalist writing information on Blue Iguanas and not only have Blue Iguanas for sale but also Cayman Brac Rock Iguanas.http://www.herpnut.com/page.php?page=iguanadetail&id=3
Wow, I love this forum! Any story can prompt discussion on any subject! For my whole adult life, my take on creation/evolution has always been that both are clearly obvious. I am what I consider a believer; I believe in God, the power of prayer, and that said God caused the creation of the universe as weknow it and as we are continuing to discover. I also believe in evolution because its signs are obvious. The question by some of why species are not continuing to evolve, in my opinion, can be answered as "who says not?" Evolution might be taking place before our eyes in some kind of a ‘real-time’ way we don’t easily recognize. After all, our exploration into robotics, nano-tech, cloning isn’t exactly a halt in human development. Why can’t all of the human knowledge to take science into those directions be a Divine plan? The same Divine power which caused the big bang in the first place.
For me it’s easy to accept both, so I really just don’t understand why for mankind’s history and certainly since Darwin published, there has to be such a chasm between the two beliefs?!
You’re not alone. Darwin didn’t have a problem reconciling the two either.
“… I really just don’t understand why for mankind’s history and certainly since Darwin published, there has to be such a chasm between the two beliefs.”
Simple: science is right and religion is wrong. Right and wrong ought not be mixed up (at least according to those who are right), because it pollutes the better of the two.
This is not to say that there is not a God, because there easily might be, but human organized religion has nothing to say about that, and the stuff about the earth being flat, being fixed in the middle of the universe, being7000 years old, and being created in 7 days, are all examples of why rational people reject the noise made by organized religion and instead believe that (a) actual science is the right way, (b) there might be a god but religion knows nothing about that which I don’t know or could discover, and (c) life and the universe is awesome without the drool of old men in silly outfits.
Oi! Bounder! I was here first with the name. Evolve a new one pronto or I will set my trained killer giant tortoises on you!
Thanks, I wasn’t aware of these issues…
Miami Seaquarium….I seem to recall hearing something years back, pre-Ivan, that there was a donation of blues to that institution. Anyone?
I am sure I saw Blue Iguanas at the Miami Seaquarium in 2007, and also in the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago in 2010
Bluey’s in Chicago at the Shedd Aquarium; http://www.sheddaquarium.org/blueiguanas.html
There is a significant display of the Blue’s titled Grand Cayman’s blue iguanas at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. The end of the corridor is Grand CAyman….rather than CAyman islands…however, it does bring quite a bit of visibility to Cayman.
I only saw a single, very large blue in the display…that was in February 2011.
Zoos with Blue Iguanas. Blueys seem to be present in other Zoo’s see this from November 2008, Blue Iguana Hatched at San Diego Zoo
http://www.worldzootoday.com/2008/11/06/a-significant-blue-birth/
Miami Seaquarium
There are also Cayman Islands Blue Iguanas in the Miami Seaquarium.
Why assume that the Blues were from Cayman? The assumption that Blues came from here means that you accept the theory of evolution, since it is evolution that tries to explain why a specific species could develop over time in remote environments, particularly islands.
All our animals came from Noah’s Ark 4,000 years ago. It makes no sense that all of the Blues swam to Cayman from Mount Ararat. Some may have stayed in Europe. The Czech Blues could come from there.
Last week at the airport I saw I advert for local company right at the immigration entrance hall which said Blues had been here for 2 million years! What a disgraceful welcome to this Christian country! How can anything be here for that long when the world is 7,000 years old? What message does that send to Christian visitors – that Cayman has turned its back on God?
Seriously?? The World is 7,000 years old? All the animals came from Noah’s ark?
I think maybe you need to get your head out of your bible and into some encyclopedias….and I’m hoping that any Christian visitors to these shores may be slightly better educated than yourself.
mock /mɒk/
–verb (used with object)
1. to attack or treat with ridicule, contempt, or derision.
2. to ridicule by mimicry of action or speech; mimic derisively.
3. to mimic, imitate, or counterfeit.
4. to challenge; defy: His actions mock convention.
5. to deceive, delude, or disappoint.
–verb (used without object)
6. to use ridicule or derision; scoff; jeer (often followed by at ).
–noun
7. a contemptuous or derisive imitative action or speech; mockery or derision.
8. something mocked or derided; an object of derision.
9. an imitation; counterfeit; fake.
If you were able to employ some of the tolerance of other people’s ideas which would have served Christianity very well because Christians have suffered greatly at the hand of such ignorant intolerance over the generations, then you could possibly have a leg to stand on. For instance, the dna proof of there being an ancestral Adam and Eve for all of humanity. To consider the veracity of the theory of evolution in an objective way through scientific exploration of the matter is not ungodly and while I have thegrowing mustard seed of faith in Christ the common sense observation of evolution of beings whether animal or human is all around us. It would behoove those on both sides of this fence to quit with the centuries old rhetoric and understand that while Mr. Darwin may have been an agnostic/atheist the theory which he coined does have merit. What you have written is exceedingly abundant in ignorance in my humble opinion and does nothing to help the spread of God into people’s hearts and minds and in actuality does quite the opposite. The very definition of faith is just that. If you actually think that the blue iguanas swam from Mount Ararat then I would personally like to have words with your preacher or whoever gave you this idea.
The simple fact is that these iguanas are somewhere other than in Cayman, where they should be. If they are going to breed as a pair, then it should be here in Cayman where they would contribute to the population of the species. If they reproduce at the Czech zoo, what good does that do for our population? It’s a shame that the zoo "had been seeking to acquire the Grand Cayman iguanas for more than ten years." Seems to me that the zoo’s burning desire to acquire them would eventually lead to someone deciding that it was worth the risk to smuggle them out of the Cayman Islands. A Czech Republic embassy website states that "Many animal and plant species are protected by the international convention CITES. Import of these endangered species to the Czech Republic requires 1) export permit issued by the country from which the species are exported and 2) import permit issued by the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic. This import is upon entry into the Czech Republic subject to control by the customs." Seems that in this case, someone in the CR overlooked their own regulations.
I think Mr. Burton should be the one to go there and check and see how they are being treated. I would be very surprised if they could survive in that climate. Remember they like to bathe in the sunlight.
Czech Republic didn’t exist in 1993 – perhaps Czechslovakia?
If I were the one with the job of investigating thisI would start with looking into the distinct and unfortunately probable correlation between theblue iguanas showing up there and the upsurgence of the reach of Eastern European organized crime. Illegal animal trafficking is very high on the list of rackets for these people. The recent arrest of the two gentlemen with the ATM fraud case and their point of origin and the somewhat necessary extended framework for this type of fraud suggests that these two smoldering examples are worth investigating. It is entirely possible that I am completely wrong on this but the way to solve a crime is to rule out all other possibilities to uncover the culprit. This is in no way meant to insult anyone of this region’s ancestry but it has to be looked at carefully and I hope that that can be understood from the outset.
The blue iguanas should be returned to Cayman immediately by all means and I find it asinine to come up with any other idea than the rightful return of these extremely rare specimens which are a national treasure. If due diligence has been adhered to, which I am doubtful of, then I am willing to reconsider my humble opinion but if found to be otherwise the perpetrator,if he/she/they are identified, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and if they are here given a swift boot to the buttocks after serving jail time and be permanently disallowed from coming back.
The green iguanas are an invasive species who do damage not only to indigenous flora and fauna but also to cultivated crops to a degree much more detrimental than the blue iguanas ever were in times gone by because our blues are mainly ground dwelling rock iguanas and the green iguanas are great at climbing trees and swimming. This characteristic also makes them less susceptible to feral animal predation than the blue iguanas. A properly organized eradication programme of the green iguanas would, in my humble opinion, be a very good thing because they are spreading like wildfire and for lack of better words the best place for them is in a stew pot.
The similarities between these two animals stops at the fact that they are both iguanas and the ability to distinguish both the animals from each other and their worthiness of being here is paramount. I realize and agree that it is distressing to see any animal suffer but the green iguanas deserve to be left in peace just about as much as the lion fish in our waters and the pythons in the Everglades and the Japanese beetles in the Northern forests. There is nothing wrong with being proactive in the eradication of a problem but it serves no one any good when the animal is made to suffer needlessly. It must be said that the binding of the limbs is the traditional practice in the lands where the green iguanas come from and no I do not wish to spark some blasted international incident. I stop for wildlife but not for the green iguana which has become an invasive and destructive species. I am one of those who used to have one as a pet when I was young but you live and you learn. I personally do not eat them but give me a sling shot and I will buy a bag of marbles and anyone who does eat them can have a feast. This is my humble opinion on the matter.
I think when this all pans out, it will be revealed that the animal’s in question are more than likely hybrid animals and not pure as believed to be. There is also one other person in Austria that claims to have pure lewisi, yet I believe they are hybrids, being represented as pure for $.
The Primier Loves to trawel and he enjoys confrontation.
So send Big Mac to get them back!!!!
It is dishartening to know some people are obsessed with MacKeva Bush, why dont you all leave the man alone, and pay attention to what is really happening on the Island. Some of you have certain nationaliities employed, and are you aware that they are cleaning the ponds of the poor little Higatees. My word, scavengers eating all of the Higatees and snaring our red beak pond fowl. If the National trust want something to do frequently check these natural habitat in the evenings and watch what is going on. Watch these people and stop watching MacKeva Bush.
Can you be more specific about where this bird snaring is going on, please?
His press secretary has been instructed to thumb through his passport to see if he has been to Prague yet, and then check if they have casinos.
The Blue Iguana probably has a better chance being bred elsewhere rather than being left in Nature here. Remember the dogs (ignorant dog owners I should say) that killed all of those blues
Ignorant dog owners? No, I don’t think so. Prevailing wisdom for the ‘blue iguana incident’ is people training dogs for fighting. Dogs will not jump from pen to pen and kill, but not eat, multiple iguanas. As the person responsible for catching the feral pack of dogs (in my own time) on the Botanic Park after this incident (that’s before the RCIPS and Immigration conspired to throw me off island- way to go bosses! How’s your crime rate?) I can confidently say that that was not ignorant dog owners, that was planned. Another example of the ignored organised crime on your little ‘paradise’.
A few years ago there was a vicious and deliberate destruction and devastation carried out in the caged/fenced habitat of our Blue Iguanas at the Botanical Park at which time a few of our Blues were killed and others went missing.
I find it very very strange that for the first time since the existence of our Blues, and since this vicious act against our endangered species, that they have now appeared on the other side of the world.
This surely makes me wonder!!!
I also wonder if our Authorities will look into WHO are those persons are that sold the Blues to the zoo and search our immigration records to see if those same persons were resident in Cayman at that time OR trace the business connections back to the Cayman Islands.
Ah, the conspiracy theory.
How come there’s none been relocated to the Little Cayman or the Brac ? You’d think there would be plenty of room for them to roam and reproduce there without all the Traffic and people. And surely the residents would be willing to protect and care for them….
Just a thought…
I could be wrong but I think I had this conversation once and the concern is that the blue mixes with the Brac iguana and would therefore no longer be a true blue….am I on the right track anyone?
In response to your question regarding the sister isles and blue iguana relocation there; the reason is that the ones over there are of a separate sub-species identified by previous dna testing and it would not be beneficial because of this fact. They look different if you have one of each specimen before you also.
The sister islands are not the natural habitat of the Blues. It’s not smart to ammend nature by placing them there. They are unique to Grand Cayman and should remain in the wild there only.They’ve evolved over time to be suited to the environment in Grand Cayman, so there is not telling what ecological/ environmental impacts would be felt by placing some there
Little Cayman and Cayman Brac have their own unique endangered iguanas. Blues need to be protected in their original habitat just as the Little Cayman rock iguana needs to be protected in Little Cayman.
Blue’s do not naturally occur in the Brac or Little Cayman. They are endemic to GRAND Cayman.
The Sister Islands Iguana are endemic to the Sister Islands.
There are slight differences between the two and I don’t think should be mixed, according to my understanding after a trip to BIRP, but I could be wrong.
Not only that but the cars on Little Cayman are killing the sister islands iguana over there as well. So I’m sorry but I don’t think that is the cure to the issues they face.
Probably because the ones in Little Cayman are a subspecies and therefore genetically different than the ones here…not sure about the Brac
I do not see the need for bringing them back home. I believe that they can be monitored along with the conservation teams here. The zoo could be in close contact with the QE II Botanical Park here and informaton can be shared. If they are being taken care of properly and they succeed in breading them then brilliant!!! Things can be learnt by a cooperation of the two. If the iguanas are in a safe environment then why not let them stay! Where I think Mr. Mac should ask questions is about the Hungarian. Find out how the animals left Cayman, XXXX. And try and stop the illegal trade of blue iguanas.
I don’t think the point is that they are being bred else where, I think the concern how did they get there?
23:17 for your information the Green Iguanas were brought here as pets and are not endemic to the Cayman Islands. They are a nuisance, destroying crops and bathing in swimming pools.
Oh, Heavens Above! NOT the swimming pool!!!!! Where’s my duct tape…
Does it really matter where they are bred? Are we doing this again to glorify our own ego’s or for the sake of the iguana itself to survive, anywhere in the world?
It is important to find out how they got there and it would be significant to discover if they can indeed survive in a different habitat other then ours. We import hundreds of foreign species of all sorts of animals and don’t we kind of expect them to survive here too. If not, who are we going toblame? The pet store?
The proud notion we have that our Blue can only live here is good and bad at the same time isn’t it, good for our pride and ego and bad because it reduces the chance of survival considering the quite incredible lack of conservation we so ‘enjoy’ here. Ask the groupers, mangroves, wildlife habitats, parrots, barn owls and God knows what else, they will all confirm this too.
Until we see the absolute need for a comprehensive conservation law, the Blues in this case will continue to suffer in the long run. As long as we have the Fred Burton’s on our island along with security cameras, jail style enclosures and assign guarded exclusive habitats for the Blues to roam in and unlike the last time when our six adults were so brutally slaughtered for no reason whatsoever, criminal proscecution for all those who endanger them in any form or way, the Blues may have a fair shake at long term survival. Until then, the battle continues………………….
It is very important to learn where these iguanas were bred because there are greedy individuals who smuggle endangered animals around the globe purely for profit with no regard for the animals. Several years ago three Germans were caught and arrested when they tried to smuggle blue iguanas (and many other plants and animals) to Europe. If the iguanas at this zoo were legally obtained from a legal source, then fine. But if they were obtained from someone who deals in smuggled animals, then this person needs to be found and arrested.
Green Iguanas MURDERED.
I was driving back from the QEII park after seeing the blue iguanas when I saw a green iguan sunning itself at the side of the road. My grand children were delighted to see this magneficent creature. Then with horror they saw the truck behind swerve into the kerb while towing a mixer to try and kill him. I guess when you kill all the green ones you can put them on the endangered list too. Do you guys not have a RSPCA here?
Read the paper about the South Side hero who duct taped an iguana for 7 days, amounting to torture, they didn’t want to be identified though. Welcome to Cayman.
If you read the article about the green iguana being duct taped for seven days correctly, it was the neighbour who did the deed and the person who freed the iguana did not want to be identified. Get your facts straight before you comment.
No wonder the homeowner who found the greenie tied up did not want to be identified, he had enough sense to realize people don’t actually read the facts and he would be blamed for it – just like the poor fisherman who caught the hammerhead last week.
Dear Mr. Tourist, I am an animal lover and never want to see an animal suffering, nor do I condone trying to hit an animal with a vehicle. However, the green iguana was brought to Cayman by people and released. It is an invasive species which is extremely damaging to the environment. The green iguana is more aggressive than our native blue iguana and will over time completely replace the blue iguana by taking all of its remaining habitat away. In addition, the green iguana eats thousands of native bird eggs and baby birds – something our blue iguana does not do which puts even more pressure on the native bird population. Every green iguana in Cayman needs to be captured and humanely put down. Failure to do so is cruel to our native iguanas, birds and other wildlife.
9.22., You refer to the green iguanas eating, "thousands" of native bird eggs and suggest that they will eventually replace our native "Blues." I believe there is very little evidence for either of these assertions.
I would like to refer readers to the following website which specifically deals with the three species of invasive iguanas in Florida:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in528
Furthermore, the ‘law of unintended consequences’ would probably apply if you eradicated the now omnipresent Green Iiguana, whose eggs and young provide an easy food supply to a long list of predators, listed on this website, including fish, apparently. Invasive doesn’t always mean bad for wildlife, though I fully agree that they are a great nuisance to pool owners gardeners etc
I’m really horrified to hear that our blues are being peddled and bred abroad. Yes, it is good that they are being bred, but I really hate the thought of them being all over the globe. I think we should create a law and fine anyone who uses our blues for their own personal gain!
why?
i confess, I smuggled them there, in my pants.
Oh great now we will have to pay for the Premier and JuJu and company to trapse all the way up there to see the iguanas for themselves, conduct a fact finding report, appoint a council, and who knows what else. Thanks alot!
On a serious note, it is important that the proper channels were/are used to remove the blues. However, it is great to know they are surviving in a different habitat and hopefully will breed and increase their population. As for the greens as much as I hate them eating every blessed thing in my garden I would never intentionally torture or kill any of them. They are still animals and even if they arent protected some if the things I see and hear about their treatment is cruel and speaks volumes as to how vicious our society can be.
Last week I was driving along the main road and stopped because a young green ran out and got confused and frightened. Then the lady in the car coming opposite stopped too. Neither of us would move for fear of running it over, needless to say the people behind us were not impressed! I don’t care.
The blue is neither the rarest nor the most endangered iguana on earth. The Galapagos pink is rarer and considered to be closer to extinction. But don’t let fact gets in the way of the tourist spiel.
it’s still rare and endangered… sheesh!
The Galapagos pink wasn’t even documented as being discovered until 2009. I use google too.
And that shows just how rare they are. My point was a simple one, I am tired of the peddling of the line that the Blues are the rarest and most endangered iguana species in the world. That line is simply not true. They are very very rare and very very endangered but the usual tourist sell is not accurate.
Although what they’re doing is amazing, I hardly think that this claim is a tourist trap. Persons willing to travel distances to see "the rarest iguana" are probably much more informed than either of us in this matter.
If you are trying to state a fact, please make sure they are correct.
“The species was first discovered in 1986 and was identified as a separate species, distinct from the Galapagos land iguana, early in 2009.” – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. And is not listed as endangered.
“The Blue Iguana or Grand Cayman Iguana (Cyclura lewisi) is a critically endangered species of lizard of the genus Cyclura endemic to the island of Grand Cayman. Previously listed as a subspecies of the Cuban Iguana, it was reclassified as a separate species in 2004 because of genetic differences discovered four years earlier………..The Blue Iguana is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.” – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In fact, I also saw that. However, Wikipedia is not an accurate or reliable source of research. It’s open to anonymous editing which makes your comment as reliable as any other we read on this website.
Yes, but ours are blue! And on top of that, there has been a remarkable effort to recover the species. A job well done so far. My hat off to the folks who continue to help our very own rarity make a healthy and multiple return to planet earth.
My wishis for the Blues not to have the distinction of being rare. That’s what one should take away from this story.
Czech Republic signed CITES on 14/4/1993 make yourself useful Mr Premier get Faust & Magarita back and bring our blues home tell Rufus Solobadan XXXX to give us back our Iguanas and get Mr Manderson to PI him too.