Crystal with BYB ready for weighing and measuring

Then Matt was surprised by an iguana much bigger than any of the iguanas we had been monitoring so far. We trapped him next day, and found out it was “BYB” who had lost his Blue-Yellow-Blue bead tag. One of the original 2004 released males, BYB has grown far outgrown all the others we are still seeing, weighing in at 3.41 Kilograms.  The Salina Blues are growing up!

Final briefing before Salina Survey 2010

Finally we all returned to my home, where we had a final briefing, including the theory and purposes of the survey, and assigning the teams: Matt and Crystal will be the catch and tag team, while the three survey teams will be Megan and I; Doug and Carly;  Stacy and Joe. A meal together (thanks, Sarah!), a toast to the next three weeks work, and we are all set to start the survey work in earnest, tomorrow morning.

It is time now to take a detailed look at how all those iguanas are doing. We know they started breeding in the wild in 2006, but how successful has natural breeding been in raising the total wild population even further? Now that we have placed permanent artificial retreats of a wide range of sizes throughout the core release area, what effect has that had on the population density within the protected area? How many of the iguanas have dispersed out of the release area, and how far have they moved? These sorts of questions need some answers, if we are ever to be able to answer the really important question which we should never take for granted. Is our release strategy actually working?

Field gear in preparation for Salina Blues survey

So we are in the final stages of preparation for a major three-week survey, which kicks off on 2^nd March 2010. Matt Goetz and Stacy Whittaker joined us on 27^th February, with Joe Freeman and Carly Easby following the next day. Megan Rasmussen and Crystal Robertson are on their way as I write on 28^th February, and Doug Bell has already been with us for several weeks.

We’ll be forming three survey teams and one “catch-and-tag” team. The survey teams will be stealthily walking every trail in the Salina Reserve, scanning intensely for iguana sightings twice a day six days a week over three weeks, for a total of 18 survey days and 108 individual survey walks. The catch-and-tag team will back them up with focused attention on any un-tagged or elusive iguanas which the survey teams can’t indentify as they pass.

If all goes smoothly, we will complete the survey before the end of March. Then the survey teams head back home, and the number crunching and mapping work begins. By early May the results should be clear enough to guide us in our next big endeavor of the year – the first iguana release into our new Blue Iguana Reserve!

We’re planning to offer locally dispatched mail order in the three Cayman Islands, as well as placing stock in local stores. International mail orders will be dispatched from the USA.

So- pre-order your copy now, or keep an eye out for launch publicity some time in mid April…

3 December 2009

Fred Burton MBE receives Blue Turtle Award from JNCC Chair, Peter Bridgewater

JNCC Chair, Peter Bridgewater, one of the panel of judges for the Award, said: “It is not often that one person’s efforts are contribute so much to bringing a species back from the brink of extinction, but in Fred’s case this was absolutely the case. There are many examples of extraordinary professional and enthusiastic work being done to conserve and manage the biodiversity of our Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies by the local populations, often with little fanfare. JNCC wanted to help by, once a year, rewarding the work of a particular individual or group. For 2009, Fred was the unanimous choice of the judging panel.”

Blue Turtle Award

Gina Ebanks-Petrie, Director, Department of Environment, Cayman Islands Government said of the Programme: “The Blue Iguana was once referred to as the most endangered rock iguana on the planet. Through Fred’s work a very successful captive breeding programme was established and blue iguanas are being re-introduced to the wild. Fred has taken the programme from a backyard project to a fully-fledged captive breeding facility which produces over 100 young iguanas for release into protected areas each year. The programme has been so successful that it serves as a model for other regional projects.”

Tara Pelembe, JNCC’s Overseas Territories Officer, commented: “We hope this is just the beginning of JNCC being able to shine a light on projects and actions that deserve a wider audience and acknowledgement. Fred is inspirational in his care for the blue iguana, and it is a pleasure to celebrate his success.”

Monday 7th December, 2009 Posted: 15:51 CIT (20:51 GMT)

The UK government’s advisory body on conservation has awarded Fred Burton, director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, the new annual Blue Turtle award for his work in preventing the extinction of one of the world’s most endangered species.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee presented Mr. Burton with the award for his work in Cayman on the blue iguana programme last Wednesday in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Mr. Burton is the inaugural recipient of the Blue Turtle Award for nature conservation in the Overseas Territories and Crown Territories.

Peter Bridgewater, chairman of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee said there had been several nominees, but that Mr. Burton’s accomplishments were “outstanding”.

Mr. Burton has worked in the conservation field in Cayman for more than 20 years, and received an MBE in 2007 for his efforts in the conservation of endangered species. He has been director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme since 2000.

Four years ago, the blue iguana was considered extinct in the wild, but due to the work done by the recovery programme at the National Trust’s Blue Iguana conservation facility in the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, there are now more than 570 of the endangered iguanas roaming in the wild.

Mr. Bridgewater, who was one member of the panel of judges for the award, said: “It is not often that one person’s efforts contribute so much to bringing a species back from the brink of extinction, but in Fred’s case this was absolutely the case.

“There are many examples of extraordinary professional and enthusiastic work being done to conserve and manage the biodiversity of our Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies by the local populations, often with little fanfare.”

He added: “JNCC wanted to help by, once a year, rewarding the work of a particular individual or group. For 2009, Fred was the unanimous choice of the judging panel.”

Gina Ebanks–Petrie, director of the Department of Environment, said of the programme: “The Blue Iguana was once referred to as the most endangered rock iguana on the planet. Through Fred’s work, a very successful captive breeding programme was established and blue iguanas are being re–introduced to the wild.

“Fred has taken the programme from a backyard project to a fully–fledged captive breeding facility which produces over 100 young iguanas for release into protected areas each year. The programme has been so successful that it serves as a model for other regional projects.”

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee is the statutory adviser to Government on UK and international nature conservation.

According to the committee, The Blue Turtle Award was presented based on the following criteria: nature conservation benefit/added value; innovation; community involvement; and links to a specific project, or demonstrating long–term commitment and dedication.

Any individual, or group of individuals, including governments, from and working on an Overseas Territory or Crown Dependency, can be nominated. The work or project must have been in place for more than a year, demonstrated innovation and have made a real difference.

In addition to a trophy, the Blue Turtle Award gives £500 (CI$675) to the individual or group, and a £1,000 (CI$1,350) contribution to an Overseas Territory or Crown Dependency nature conservation project of their choice.

Tara Pelembe, the committee’s overseas territories officer, said: “We hope this is just the beginning of JNCC being able to shine a light on projects and actions that deserve a wider audience and acknowledgement. Fred is inspirational in his care for the blue iguana, and it is a pleasure to celebrate his success.”

Cayman News Service
Posted on Wed, 10/10/2009

Photo credit: John Binns, IRCF

(CNS): He may be cold blooded, but Gorgeous George, one of Cayman’s best known Blue Iguanas, will be extending a warm welcome to the Cayman Islands to everyone who passes through Owen Roberts international. With the help of local legal firm Walkers, the National Trust has created a stunningly attractive poster of the endangered, indigenous creature for the airport to help raise awareness and promote the work of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme. Gorgeous George will be one of the first things that people see when they arrive in the customs hall and his poster tagline puts things in perspective: “His ancestors have been here for two million years.”

The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme was started by the National Trust in 1990 when they first began breeding captive blue iguanas. The conservation programme has helped ensure the survival of the species, by releasing captive blue iguanas into the wild. It has already had tremendous success with over 120 baby blue iguanas hatched this summer.

Fred Burton, Director of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, envisions a self-sustaining, free roaming population of at least one thousand Grand Cayman blue iguanas, living freely in the wild within protected areas, reproducing naturally and continuing to evolve in step with their ever-changing natural environment.

“At the moment we have very roughly about 300 blues restored to the wild, so we have to lift that to at least 700 more and ensure as best we can they are allowed to survive, breed and sustain themselves,” Burton said. “To that end the captive facility is now literally crammed to capacity.”

Walkers and National Trust Airport Sign

Walkers have long been supporters of the programme and the Blue Iguana’s vital part in Cayman’s heritage. The firm said the success of the recovery programme is extremely important and it has adopted the Blue Iguana as a promotional icon, producing branded soft toys since to promote the work of the breeding project at international conferences, as well as to educate children in Cayman.

As a Gold Sponsor of the National Trust, in 2006 Walkers pledged CI$ 60,000 over three years to fund the operating costs of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme.

“I have been very impressed by the Recovery Programme’s plans to develop native ecosystems for the blue iguanas to attract nature tourism to Cayman and inspire a range of commercial products, in order to generate sustainable revenue to fund  the  management of the blue iguana population indefinitely,” said David Byrne, Chief Marketing Officer at Walkers. “This year we have created an even  more realistic blue iguana toy and we hope they will continue to be used as an educational tool and help raise awareness of the need to support the efforts made by the National Trust to help save this beautiful creature.”

Walkers will also provide the National Trust with unbranded toys to sell in their store with the profits from sales going to support the recovery programme.

Walkers said it is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen and its support of the Blue Iguana Recovery Programme is just one way in which the firm looks to make a difference within the community, with active participation from staff at all levels.

Warden Alberto Estovanovich works on restoring old cages

The Blue Iguana captive facility is now, as we anticipated, packed with more iguanas than ever before. “It’s a good problem to have” we keep saying to each other, as John, Alberto and the Team Blue volunteers scavenge the last of our oldest and most damaged hatchling cages and build anew, to keep pace with emergence of clutch after clutch from the incubators.

Each freshly hatched egg clutch is left undisturbed in the incubation box for three to four days, while each hatchling’s umbilical opening seals over. Then they are cleaned, weighed and measured, and placed in individual cloth bags for transport to the captive facility.

As of the beginning of September we have 94 new baby Blues, and the last few clutches are still hatching. The final count for 2009, depending on hatching success in five remaining incubation boxes, is expected to reach somewhere about 119.

At that stage, not a single cage will be vacant, until December when we have scheduled the next release of captive-reared two-year-olds into the Salina Reserve.