{"id":16024,"date":"2022-11-30T11:54:11","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T11:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/?p=16024"},"modified":"2022-12-12T12:06:57","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T12:06:57","slug":"saba-green-iguana-non-native-species-emergency-response-project-island-of-saba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/2022\/11\/30\/saba-green-iguana-non-native-species-emergency-response-project-island-of-saba\/","title":{"rendered":"Saba Green Iguana Non-Native Species – Emergency Response Project – Island of Saba"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During a 2021-population\nassessment of the Saba Green Iguana, researchers believed to have identified\nthe presence of several non-native iguanas on the island of Saba. Later\nanalyses of genetic samples confirmed<\/a> this suspicion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image 1: Native Saba Green Iguanas, female (front) and male<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Non-native\niguanas are widespread throughout the Lesser Antilles and form the main threat\nto the native Lesser Antillean Iguana. However, other endemic populations of Iguana\n<\/em>are also native to the region; those on Saba, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St.\nVincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in a collaborating effort, the Saba Conservation and Wageningen Marine Research, have initiated an emergency response project, following an earlier campaign done on St. Eustatius<\/a>. The project aims to identify and remove all non-native iguanas from the island. Over the last two weeks Thijs van den Burg and James Johnson have been in the field locating and capturing non-natives iguanas. Survey efforts are focused around two locations; the harbour and an area north of the town of Windwardside. Eight non-native iguanas were identified, of which four have successfully been removed. The other four will continue to be targeted during the next weeks and a second round of intense fieldwork effort is planned for early 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image 2: Thijs van den Burg with a large non-native male iguana caught in November 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Genetic analyses\nhighlight the origin of the identified non-native iguanas to be Cura\u00e7ao and the Central American mainland. However, their probable more\ndirect source of origin are the non-native populations on Puerto Rico, and\nespecially the non-native population present on neighbouring St. Maarten\/Martin.\nThis is the same as for non-native iguanas arriving on St. Eustatius, which\nalso originate from St. Maarten\/Martin. Both islands lack consistent biosecurity\nscreening of arriving boats and onboard containers and their content. Hence, so\nfar when containers are opened, iguanas inside are not directly caught or even\nconsidered as harmful. The project aims to make border control and customs\nofficers aware of the danger that such invasive animals pose to native wildlife\nand secure their cooperation in capturing and reporting such stowaway\nhitchhiker species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent\nfieldwork on Saba has been financially aided through the International\nIguana Foundation and the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture Nature and Food Quality\n(LNV).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a 2021-population assessment of the Saba Green Iguana, researchers believed to have identified the presence of several non-native iguanas on the island of Saba. Later analyses of genetic samples […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16024"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16033,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions\/16033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeaninvasives.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}