Overpopulation of iguanas in Puerto Rico 1

Overpopulation of Iguanas in Puerto Rico

Antonio Romero Ramos

RISE Program

Bio 3031

July 6, 2009

Overpopulation of iguanas in Puerto Rico 2

After a time when the population of iguana in Puerto Rico was high, nowadays it’s still been a

problem. Iguanas are causing damage to many ecosystems like mangroves. The purpose of this

work is to aware people about this problem and finds a way to resolve it. Establish a sterilization

program I’ll be contributing to the biological control of iguanas and protecting the ecosystems.

The question is how can we control the population of iguanas? My objective is to create a

biological control of this population because they aren’t causing a fast damage but if we don’t

control it now, it’ll turn in a bigger problem. The kind of iguana that is causing the

overpopulation is known as the green iguana. It’s native from the tropical jungle of Central

America and South America. The green iguana (Iguana iguana ) is from the kingdom Animalia

and it’s a reptile. Being a reptile they have skin with scales. They grew from 7.5cm to a size of

2m including the tail that can be the half of their body. They have green skin but it varies because

it could have black stripes, grayish color, etc. The green skin helps them to camouflage from the

predators. A crest bigger in male iguanas. Their legs are short, have claws to climb. They are

diurnal, during they hide in trees. They are cold-blooded; they can’t control their temperature so

that’s why they like the Ultra Violet rays, besides it helps in their metabolism.

They Nutrition is based on plants so they are herbivores. As cows in their stomach they have

microorganisms (prokaryotes) that help them to digest cellulose. They eat leaves, fruit, and

flowers of selected herbs, shrubs, trees and vines. They reproduction is bases on eggs. They are

polygamous it means that they do not reproduce with a specific organisms of the kind, as the

Overpopulation of iguanas in Puerto Rico 3

most of birds do. The infatuation between them occurs when the male iguana shakes his head to

catch the attention of the female. The infatuation basically occurs during November and

December. The interaction occurs from February to April. Female iguanas put approximately

30-60 eggs, it depends on the size.

The possible answer of how did they get here? Is that people kept these animals as a pet, but

when they cannot afford the responsibility they release the iguanas anywhere. The problem is

that in Puerto Rico they do not have a natural predator. In their native place they have natural

predators such as anacondas, felines, foxes. That’s why we are having an overpopulation of

iguanas in Puerto Rico.

My hypothesis is that if I create a Controlled Sterilization Program it’ll control the population of

iguanas. This Controlled Sterilization program as its name says is control, which means that I

won’t sterilize every iguana because I just want to control not to extinguish them.

The process that I’ll follow to make my investigation is:

First, I’ll get the permission from the Department of Natural Resources to use the iguanas. I

know that when I use animals I can’t provoke any pain to them. If the animal has to be sacrifice I

need to know how and what I’m going to do with it. I’ll going to talk with the biologist in Isla

Magueyes to see if the can provide me the iguanas. Once I have the iguanas and the

Overpopulation of iguanas in Puerto Rico 4

authorization, I’ll contact a veterinarian and explain my investigation. Also that the method of

sterilization that I want to use is the castration (removes the testicles of males and eggs on

female). The next step is recluse 50 iguanas (25 of each sex). Identify them with a chip to control

their location. So make sure that they do not escape from the place that I’ll choose. The place

will be in their habitat but it will be restrained. I’ll observe their reproductive behavior. The

iguanas will be submitted to the surgery. When the wound has completely close then I release

them to the restrained area. I’ll observe their reproductive behavior after the surgery and compare

if it’s equal to before the surgery. I’ll wait until their season of reproduction if the times when I

do the investigation do not concord with it. Weekly I’ll go and see if the sterilization was

effective, if it was, and how many it was.

.

Overpopulation of iguanas in Puerto Rico 5

References

Campbell, Reece. Biology. Eight Edition. Pearson Benjamin Cunnings. Chapter 5. Page

Unknown Author, Green Iguana . http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/iguana.html

Unknown Author, Características de la iguana verde. http://trabajo.commx/caracteristicas_de_la_iguana_verde.html

Wissman, Margaret A. Iguana Nutrition. 2006. http://www.exoticpetvet.net/reptile/nutrition.html