19 September 2007

Uncommon Utila Iguanas breed at London Zoo

ZSL ( Zoological Society London) London Zoo celebrated success on the birth of nine Utila iguanas (Ctenosaura bakeri) on September 19th 2007. ZSL became triumphant because Utila babies had never been bred so successfully at the zoo before. Utila iguanas are endangered and have been the subject of a European conservation breeding programme. According to Richard Gibson curator of Herpetology, the species arrived in European zoos less than 10 years ago and the breeding project has proven widely successful. Utila iguana babies are about 15cms long, 12 cms of which is tail. The male is bigger and grows to be more than 2 feet in length at maturity. The rarity of the Utila babies do now allow them to go on shows at the zoo but they will go into a breeding programme at other zoos in Spain, Poland and California. The only type of spiny-tailed inguana to live in mangrove swamps makes the Utila iguana unique. They are unable to lay eggs in the swamp so the female moves to beaches at a close distance. The laid eggs are buried in the sand and left for the sun to incubate them. Upon hatching the hatchlings move naturally back into the mangroves. The Utila iguanas covers around 8 square kms of the mangroves of Utila, which lies off the coast of Honduras. Adult Utila iguanas inhabit holes in various mangrove trees.

A direct link to the news can be found here