Gorgeous George to make a first impression
(CNS): He may be cold blooded, but Gorgeous George, one of Cayman’s best known Blue Iguanas, will be extending a warm welcome to the Cayman Islands to everyone who passes through Owen Roberts international. With the help of local legal firm Walkers, the National Trust has created a stunningly attractive poster of the endangered, indigenous creature for the airport to help raise awareness and promote the work of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme. Gorgeous George will be one of the first things that people see when they arrive in the customs hall and his poster tagline puts things in perspective: "His ancestors have been here for two million years."
The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme was started by the National Trust in 1990 when they first began breeding captive blue iguanas. The conservation programme has helped ensure the survival of the species, by releasing captive blue iguanas into the wild. It has already had tremendous success with over 120 baby blue iguanas hatched this summer.
Fred Burton, Director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, envisions a self-sustaining, free roaming population of at least one thousand Grand Cayman blue iguanas, living freely in the wild within protected areas, reproducing naturally and continuing to evolve in step with their ever-changing natural environment.
"At the moment we have very roughly about 300 blues restored to the wild, so we have to lift that to at least 700 more and ensure as best we can they are allowed to survive, breed and sustain themselves," Burton said. "To that end the captive facility is now literally crammed to capacity."
Walkers have long been supporters of the programme and the Blue Iguana’s vital part in Cayman’s heritage. The firm said the success of the recovery programme is extremely important and it has adopted the Blue Iguana as a promotional icon, producing branded soft toys since to promote the work of the breeding project at international conferences, as well as to educate children in Cayman.
"I have been very impressed by the Recovery Programme’s plans to develop native ecosystems for the blue iguanas to attract nature tourism to Cayman and inspire a range of commercial products, in order to generate sustainable revenue to fund the management of the blue iguana population indefinitely," said David Byrne, Chief Marketing Officer at Walkers. "This year we have created an even more realistic blue iguana toy and we hope they will continue to be used as an educational tool and help raise awareness of the need to support the efforts made by the National Trust to help save this beautiful creature.”
Walkers will also provide the National Trust with unbranded toys to sell in their store with the profits from sales going to support the recovery programme.
Walkers said it is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen and its support of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme is just one way in which the firm looks to make a difference within the community, with active participation from staff at all levels.
Category: Science and Nature
Finally some respect of what is truly Caymanian. I am so proud of Companies like Walkers that help with things of this nature. Yet out own government could care less about preserving our beautiful Island. That’s right George you are indeed really blue (for those idiots that don’t know anything about what blue iguana’s look like). I’m glad that the tourists will see something Caymanian when they arrive at the airport. Go Deh George.
but how can his ancestors have been here for 2 million years?
god put us special caymanians on this special rock 2000 years ago & the moon has only been up there 2000 years
just ask juliana connolly, deputy leader. she knows what shes talking about
heretics!
U fool fool or wha?? U na kno wen sumbody jes foolin ya up or wha?? Da was jes wha ya call a lil sarrrcccaaassssmmmm,,,,,, FFFFOOOOLLLL
Are blue iguanas really that blue? The poster photo seems enhanced. It doesn’t look real? I’m just asking, is that colour accurate?
I was wondering the same thing myself. I think that is very misleading to have a color enhanced version on a huge poster as you enter Cayman. Another big fat lie to tell our visitors.
Look!! No crime! And beautiful iridescent blue iguanas roaming the land!
Perhaps you should go see for yourself!
Some are, particularly the young males as I understand, and especially so during mating season.
In other species it’s only particular parts that do this.
Learn more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Iguana
Caymanians should be proud that the Blue Iguana exists only in Grand Cayman. I often wondered why the Trust and Government never got together to make National Geographic style documentaries about all the indigenous and rare species of plants and animals that belong to these islands. Or invited Discovery Channel down to do a show on these rare species and broadcast it for the world to see.
Instead we are too concerned with destroying and over developing. Many Caymanians (old and young) know nothing about their country and its natural treasures. So they don’t value them. Where ever there is a tree surrounded by grass… we replace it with concrete and throw in a royal palm because palms look sooooo expensive.
We are clueless to conservation and environmental issues.
Our leaders believe progress means MORE…. not BETTER.
The agenda here is to let people know that faith is ok, but science is fact proven by repetitive experiments. If you don’t believe in evolution, then how can a virus like swine flu change from a pig hosted virus into a human hosted virus in a matter of months, lots of micro biotic creatures with accelerated life functions can and DO evolve at an accelerated rate… yes, EVOLVE! If you don’t want to accept evolution as fact, I do not want to see you in queue for the flu jab this fall, because you apparently don’t believe in the virus evolving into a human threat. All you need to do to be cured is pray (maybe sacrifice a virgin) to your imaginary leader for good health.
The poster is lovely because George is gorgeous indeed. Thank you, Walkers, for your support of the National Trust and the Blue Iguana Recovery Program.
Blessed??? Well your clearly not "blessed" with intelligence…
Sorry, I meant to say "you’re" clearly not blessed with intelligence….
^^ LOL! – Pie on Your face! "The sum of intelligence on the planet is a constant; the population is growing." – George Bernard Shaw
I feel the above comment qualifies for a Darwin Award.
http://www.darwinawards.com/
The problem is that you only get a Darwin Award if you take yourself out of the gene pool BEFORE reproducing. This rocket scientist is alive and kicking, and probably believes that he’ll burn in hell if he uses a condom during sex (’cause the Pope says so); if I had to guess, I bet he has 6 kids from 6 different women (all of whom were necessarily less intelligent than him).
There is evidence abound that mistaken beliefs, bad education and plain old stupidity actually promotes reproduction instead of impedingit, and uneducated people tend to make more uneducated people faster than educated people can make more educated people.
In the end, it just goes to show that sometimes the gene pool needs a little chlorine.
‘Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
Earth has quite accurately been dated to between 4.53 to 4.58 billion years old. Sorry but your Pastor is full of isht!
"Earth has quite accurately been dated to between 4.53 to 4.58 billion years old. Sorry but your Pastor is full of isht!"
What a brilliant line of reasoning: the earth is as old as I think it is because it is therefore you’re wrong.
And to the first poster, may I invite them to educate themselves as to the qualitative difference between intra and inter-species evolution. The first is observable fact, the second is hopeless speculation (though I do occasionally scratch my armpits so who knows, maybe I am the missing link…)
The earth is dated as old as it is because of the evidence, not what people believe.
Believe without facts, evidence, analysis or the application of scientific methodology (i.e. using falsification as a "criterion of demarcation" to draw a line between those theories that are scientific and those that are unscientific; see Karl Popper) is the realm of either meaningless metaphysics or of religion.
Deceived believers of false "religious history" are either contradicted by the actual evidence and thereby shown to be wrong, or they retreat back to a position where there is and can be no evidence to support them, and the matter falls to be determined solely on "faith", meaning belief without empirical or rational support, which is by definitionmeaningless and unscientific. If you agree to believe it, you are, again by definition, irrational.
You are not the missing link – just an uneducated current one.
Brilliant. So you’re doing the same as the last guy. Another blind follower of the secular humanist faith that doth protest too much about scientific "evidence" produced by secular humanists. Try doinga little honest research on the principle of irreducible complexity and Darwinism starts to look a little silly.
While I try to contain my amusement at dealing with anactual flat-earther please do explain, in terms of scientific argument supported by evidence, what "irreducible complexity" is and how it makes the earth 6000 years old, dinosaurs fossils a trick of satan, evolution just a dirty little lie, and all that jazz. This should be good…
People of a more rational nature can bone up on this at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity
"In the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, Behe gave testimony on the subject of irreducible complexity. The court found that "Professor Behe’s claim for irreducible complexity has been refuted in peer-reviewed research papers and has been rejected by the scientific community at large"
"Been here for two million years"?
What in the heck is that all about? My pastor has a PhD and he says the world is only 6,000 years old. That’s also what I learned when I was an honours student at Triple C.
Why is this misinformation being shoved down our throats? What’s the agenda here?
I know for a fact that it was Elvis who brought iguanas to these islands when he was part of the crew on Christopher Columbus’s last voyage. I was taught that he left some here so that they would have something to eat when they came back because they knew that it would be some time before Burger King would grant a franchise.
OMG! That what just too funny….I tell you I just love some of the comments on here! None of these comments have anything to do with the initial story, but this one takes the cake! Just too funny! Thanks for the laugh…..LMAO
Elvis?? Oh dear….. I hope he does not return for more of his blue suede shoes….
That’s saying a lot about the level of education at Triple C! You need to open your eyes and learn something – Try reading a history book once in a while.
This posting brought to you by Norwegian Blue, the parrot that’s really just stunned.
Your pastor is an idiot
I think this will explain what Blessed in doing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm
U betta watch out cuz mr. ‘heretics’ ga probly tink u se-rus and get pon yo case too. Him nah seems ta know wen ‘im leg a be pull. Me learns dat at tripul c too. heeheeheeheehee. U is kiddin rite????????? O lawd.
We’re all going to burn in hell because we don’t believe the earth is 6000 years old and flat.
Bring hot dogs.