“Here in Jamaica we have reports of Green
Iguana sightings in 2013, but last year we got one in Portland Cottage.
Everybody was surprised that the Green Iguana was here in the wild.”
Jamaican scientist
Damion Whyte, a PhD research student at The University of the West Indies
commenting on the Green Iguana in Jamaica
The
Green Iguana has local scientists worried.
They've
already been sighted in St Andrew four year ago and recently in Clarendon in
2016 as noted in the article “Green
Iguana worry”, published Sunday, September 17, 2017 by Vernon Davidson, The Jamaica Observer.
This
as the lizard has been wreaking havoc in Grand Cayman. They become such a
nuisance and a threat to the environment that the Cayman Department of
Environment has embarked on a programme to reduce their population. The Green Iguana is also aggressively
territorial, resulting in the indigenous Blue Iguana being declared an
endangered species.
Jamaican
scientists are concerned that Jamaica the Green Iguana could experience damage
to our local ecosystem, based on the harmful effect they've been having on the
Grand Cayman Ecosystem ago.
So
how bad is it in the Cayman Island?
The Green Iguana and
Cayman Island - Pets run amok when let loose by their owners
In
the Cayman Islands, authorities have resorted to culling in an effort to keep
the Green Iguana population from growing. In June of 2017, the Cayman Island
Government embarked on a weeklong cull by enlisting the help of 18 registered
cullers who were selected for the job. After two weeks, 4,000 iguanas,
representing a combined weight of two tons, were collected and taken to the
George Town Landfill.
But
while chefs serve Green Iguana and their eggs as cuisine to tourists, this may
not sit well with Jamaicans despite out past love affair with iguana meat as
pointed out by Damion Whyte: “We have old pictures of people downtown Kingston
selling iguana meat. It was cheap meat”.
Back
in 2015, Cayman scientists estimated that the Green Iguana population in Grand
Cayman was around 152,000. Now in May 2017, the Scientists have declared it has
hit 500,000. Their population is projected to hit 1 million by 2020 and spread
to Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.
These
herbivores not only destroy the landscape by eating the flora. They’ve also
developed a taste for agricultural crops and have been damaging infrastructure
as well. All because few tourists and locals wanted to have them as pets but
let them go when they became too large to handle.
So
how did they get to Jamaica?
The Green Iguana and
Jamaica – Uptown Pet owners and South American chicken of the trees
The
sighting in Portland Cottage, Clarendon in 2016, drew the attention of Jamaican
scientist Damion Whyte, a PhD research student at The University of the West
Indies who studies iguanas.
Good
to note here that Damion Whyte is also a member of the Invasive Species Group
at NEPA (National Environment and Planning Agency) as describe in my blog article
entitled “NEPA
and UNDP Jamaica Invasive Species Database - Why Jamaicans may be the
Environment's worst Enemy”.
The
residents have pointed out that they've seen more of them and no, Clarendon
people do not keep lizards as pets as Damion Whyte points out, quote: “Even
though in that area it is possible that we could find our endemic iguana, we
have been looking but have not yet seen any. It's not like those people there
would be interested in having iguanas as pets, so we're doing work there now to
see if we can find the others”.
But
what about uptown people?
Turns
out they may have imported a few Green Iguana as pets, as the 2013 sighting was
by a resident of Stony Hill in St Andrew to quote Damion Whyte: “At the time we
thought it was a normal green lizard, but when we got there we saw that it was
an iguana.....We found one in Manning's Hill on the road, which was hit by a
car. That could have been a pet that got away”.
However,
uptown people and their love for breaking the laws isn't all to be blamed.
It's
possible that they may have hitched a ride on South American boats fishing
vessels that illegally fish in our territorial waters as noted by Damion Whyte
quote: “We have anecdotal information as to how it got to Portland Cottage.
Local fishermen were complaining that the animals were on some of the South
American boats that came here”.
These
South Americans love iguana meat, often calling it “gallina de palo” or
“chicken of the trees”. They especially love iguana eggs and are known to
travel with up to 200 of these “chicken of the trees” to provide meat for their
meals as speculated by Damion Whyte: “It's part of the South American culture,
when they're going on fishing trips, they have like 200 iguanas in their boats
for food, and they like the ones with the eggs”.
So
if a couple of males and females Green Iguanas got away, possibly pregnant and
heavy laden with eggs, then Jamaica has reason to be worried.
But
it gets worse......
Green and Blue Iguanas
can mate - Discovery spells conservation Trouble for Jamaica
The
rapid spread of the Green Iguana in Grand Cayman has been affecting the tourism
industry.
Golf
courses have been damaged by the burrowing activity of the Green Iguanas, who
lay their eggs in these structures that weaken the gold courses, causing them
to develope sink holes as pointed out by Damion Whyte: “Their habit is to
burrow and build their nests in sandy soil. After a while that nesting cavity
collapses, causing the road to collapse”.
But
the concerns of the Cayman authorities grew after they made a frightening
discovery; the Green Iguana can reproduce with their local Blue Iguana. This
means that the same is possible in Jamaica, which represent a serious problem
for Blue Iguana conservation efforts as declared nervously by Damion Whyte:
“That's a big threat to their conservation programme. The Grand Cayman iguana is
closely related to the Jamaican iguana, so if the Green Iguana can reproduce
with their local iguana, we suspect it can reproduce with ours”.
So
what can Jamaica do against this coming onslaught of Green Iguanas?
Jamaicans need to
report Iguana Sightings - Eating Green Iguanas may be harder than Lionfish or
Pork.
Damion
Whyte his team are asking Jamaicans to report signings to NEPA, quote: “If
people see them, we ask that they take a picture, if they can, send it to NEPA
or report it by e-mail to dl_whyte@yahoo.com or call me at 435-9475 and we will
come and remove them. We need people to tell us where they are seeing them
because we don't have enough manpower to go around”.
Killing
the reptiles is not an option; Jamaicans are not trained to distinguish between
the Blue Iguana and the invasive Green Iguana. As such may kill the wrong
iguana by mistake as Jamaican iguanas are protected by law.
Identifying
them may not be hard, as the Blue Iguana live in the Hellshire hills. But
allowing Jamaicans to kill them in an effort to mimic the culling efforts in
the Cayman Islands may throw our ecosystem off balance as surmised by Damion
Whyte, quote: “The problem we are having is that the only records we have of
the Jamaican iguana here is in the Hellshire hills.There's
a slim chance they could be somewhere else, so we don't want people go out and
kill every iguana they see. Our regular green lizard looks like a juvenile
Green Iguana, so you can see the problem we will have if people start going out
to hunt and kill the Green Iguana”.
Finding
them is important, as if they are in the island and start reproducing, we may
have inherited the Cayman islands problem.
Unlike
Lionfish, getting Jamaicans to eat the Green Iguanas aka the South American
chicken of the trees may be a tougher sell than getting Jamaicans to eat
Lionfish or Pork.