A couple of rhinoceros or horned iguanas from the reptile house of Rancho Texas Lanzarote Park are reproducing for the first time in a completely natural way outside of La Española, the Caribbean island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the place of origin of this species (Cyclura cornuta) which is at high risk of extinction. "Their reproduction outside the Caribbean has been achieved, and on very few occasions, with artificial stimuli to produce copulation and artificially incubating the fertilized eggs," they pointed out from the park.
From three clutches of eggs, twelve offspring have already been born, according to Rancho Texas, from where they have stressed that they have not been artificially incubated but have occurred thanks to the "design and construction of the reptile house, inaugurated in June 2014, where the guidelines set by a team of reptile experts who defined the environmental conditions that each reptile species should have were followed." Apart from adequate temperature, lighting and humidity parameters, "successful dietary plans specifically designed for each sex and time of year" have been carried out, they added.
The management of Rancho Texas "has contacted governmental and scientific authorities of the Dominican Republic to inform them of the park's willingness to send rhinoceros iguana specimens to La Española to repopulate the areas where they have disappeared or their number is very small." "These procedures are always carried out when species in danger are reproduced in the park in order to introduce the offspring into their natural habitats and, thus, avoid their extinction," they explained. In addition, the biology of this species of reptile "is still little known" and therefore the studies carried out in this Lanzarote park have acquired "great importance because, unfortunately, it may not be long before these frontal horned iguanas are only a memory."
They have the "highest degree of protection"
The international program for endangered species of wild fauna and flora, Cites, grants rhinoceros iguanas the highest degree of protection. The horned or rhinoceros iguana has a length of between 60 to 120 centimeters and its skin stands out for a range of colors ranging from a steely gray to dark green and even brown and stands out because it has a pseudohorn covered with bony scales, which resembles that of the rhinoceros. They can weigh up to five kilos and can live up to twenty years. These iguanas reach their sexual maturity between five and nine years of age; and the female lays between five and twenty eggs in a burrow forty days after copulating. The eggs have an incubation period of between ninety and one hundred days and from them come very active offspring that measure around seventeen centimeters long.
Among the large lizards, the horned iguana is one of the most remarkable. It lives on the ground and rarely climbs trees or shrubs; they are diurnal and sleep at night at the bottom of their burrows. They are vegetarians and feed on leaves and fruits, apart from the fact that they never go to the water, even though they are related to the land and marine iguanas of the Galapagos archipelago.
The conservation of native iguanas of the Dominican Republic and Haiti contributes to maintaining these ecosystems healthy and sustainable. However, the destruction of their habitat represents the greatest threat to horned iguanas in their place of origin. In the Dominican Republic, approximately 35% of the rhinoceros iguana's habitat has been lost and, approximately, 75% of what remains is altered. Both figures are much higher for Haiti.
Other important threats to rhinoceros iguanas are the predation of feral dogs, cats, mongooses and pigs and illegal hunting for food and local trade. The use of iguanas for food in Haiti is extreme in rural areas where iguanas are striking enough for local people to be familiar with them. Fortunately, the international trade in wild animals from La Española, a conservation problem until the mid-1980s, has been controlled in the Dominican Republic.