As today is Iguana Awareness Day it only makes sense to dedicate this blog to the iguanas of Wingham.
In 2011, the Iguana Taxonomy Working Group recognized 44 species of iguana with 19 sub-species across six of those species. Several of these species are listed by the IUCN as endangered and a few are critically endangered and they are among the most endangered animals in the world.
Here at Wingham, we are home to 3 species of iguana: Rhinoceros Iguanas, Green Iguanas and a Utila Spiny-tailed Iguana.
Rhinos
Rhinoceros iguanas, also known as the Hispaniolan Rhinoceros Iguana, Rhinoceros Rock Iguana and Rhino Iguanas, are naturally found in Hispaniola and surrounding islands. Their name comes from the horn-like scales on their heads that resemble the horns of a rhinoceros. We have 3 rhinoceros iguanas here at Wingham. Our rhinoceros iguanas already have a whole blog to themselves, which you can find here.
Greens
Green Iguanas, also known as the Common Green Iguana, Common Iguana, and Green Mexican Iguana, are naturally found in Northern Mexico and southward through Central America and into northeastern South America. They have also been introduced to multiple other locations such as the Canary Islands, Fiji, Japan, The Bahamas, and the USA.
Green Iguanas are an arboreal species, which means they live up high in trees, but they are also able to adapt to living in more open and urban environments too. They are great swimmers and can be found living close to a water source.
These are the longest species of iguana, growing up to 7 feet in length. Their tail usually makes up half of their total length and they can use it to defend themselves by using it like a whip at potential threats. Along the top of their body they have dermal spines which run from their neck to their tail, some may stand up high while others flop to the side. Green Iguanas also sport a large pendulous dewlap on their throat which, when they’re relaxed, will be soft. They can expand this dewlap so it looks large and wide when they feel threatened or during displays towards other iguanas for mating.
Green Iguanas are herbivores, eating a variety of plants, fruits and flowers, and they have very sharp teeth to help with eating and tearing up food.
Despite being named Green Iguanas, they can come in a variety of colours, some occur naturally depending on locality and some which have been selectively bred through the pet trade. You may see Green Iguanas in the following colours: green, deep green, grey, bright orange, and pale brown.
In South and Central America, Green Iguanas are commonly known as “gallina de palo” – which means “tree chicken”, “stick hen” or “chicken of the trees”.
Green Iguanas are listed as least concern, which means they are currently not threatened. They are however, affected by habitat loss and collection for the pet trade.
Wingham has 2 Green Iguanas, one that is orange and one that is a grey colour. Our orange iguana is called Devil and our grey one is called Khaleesi.
Utila
Utila Spiny-tailed Iguanas, also known as Baker’s Spiny-tail Iguana, Swamper, Wishiwilly and Garrobo, are found on Utila Island, just north of Honduras.
These iguanas are critically endangered and are only found in the 8km2 of mangrove forest on Utila Island, making these one of the 2 most endangered species of iguanas in the world (the other being the Galapagos Pink Island Iguana).
The biggest threat for these guys is habitat loss from mangrove degradation and deforestation. Their habitat has also become fragmented due to development for the tourism industry and for agriculture. Other threats include pollution from agricultural chemicals and plastic waste as well as the introduction of alien species such as: cattle, cats, dogs and rats and non-native plants. These iguanas and their eggs are also hunted for human consumption and gravid females (females with eggs developing inside them) are eaten as a traditional delicacy during the Easter period.
Despite the Utila Spiny-tailed Iguana being protected by law since 1994, illegal hunting still takes place as the law is not well enforced.
In the wild these iguanas will primarily eat mangrove leaves, flowers, vegetation and invertebrates.
We have 1 Utila Spiny-tailed Iguana here at Wingham and you will usually find him hanging out right by the window in his enclosure so you can get super close to him.
Iguanas
An extra iguana fact: “Iguana” comes from a Spanish form of the Taino name: “Iwana”.
Some of my favourite things about our iguanas:
- Our rhino iguanas can snort stuff out of their nostrils and hit us, sometimes on the face, from a metre away. Iguana snot snorting contests, the next big thing?
- They all have their own unique personalities.
- Our Utila Iguana likes chasing the sponge when we clean his window. He also gets super excited when he gets given bugs to eat.
- Our Green Iguanas like to watch the turtles swimming in their enclosure.
- They’re all pretty relaxed when we go in to clean their enclosures around them.
- Our Rhino Iguanas will sometimes follow us around the enclosure if we have bright colours socks on because they think the socks are tasty snacks.
- Once, I overheard a conversation between a dad and his little girl that went as follows:
Dad: “Look, an iguana!”
Girl: “Moana!?”
Dad: “No, not Moana, Iguana!”
And ever since, I always get the songs from Moana stuck in my head but replace the word Moana with iguana.
