As we know iguana care is the most thing for iguana lovers to know before they make this animal as a pet. There are many different between keep this animal compare with other pets. This animal should be treated more than other pets in other words treat your iguana like a king.
Small farmers in Central America may soon be raising green iguanas as they do free-range chickens. Green iguanas, often called “chickens of the trees” have been eaten both as a delicacy and a staple food for at least 7,000 years. These reptiles have a range that extends from Mexico to Brazil. Recent environmental degradation and over hunting have brought the species to near extinction.
Six years ago, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama funded Dr. Dagmar Werner, a German herpetologist, to study the high mortality rate of the green iguanas. Out of this research evolved the Green Iguana Management Project which Dr. Werner continues to direct today. Dr. Werner’s research promises to provide an alternative enterprise for small farmers while helping save the threatened lizard and some of Central America’s tropical forests.
Through the Green Iguana Management Project Dr. Werner is attempting to increase the population of green iguanas by breeding them in captivity and releasing them in farmer’s forests from which some iguanas could be harvested. The task of raising iguanas in captivity was a challenging one which no one believed would be achieved as quickly as Dr. Werner did. She started by collecting pregnant female iguanas, and taking them to a natural iguana nesting site to lay their eggs. She discovered that the labyrinthine nests females dug made retrieving the eggs difficult. Since that experience she has used artificial egg-laying sites from which it is easy to retrieve the eggs. The artificial egg-laying sites consist of concrete or clay drainage tubes which lead to an egg-laying chamber of cinder blocks. After collecting the eggs they are incubated in small cylinders made of screening that rest on top of the ground. These incubators are covered with palm fronds to protect the young iguanas from too much sun, and from rain which could drown the hatchlings.
Hatchlings are contained and protected from snakes in enclosures of tall sheet metal walls. Wire netting strung over the enclosures protects them from opossums and hawks. Trees and thick branches placed in the enclosures provide shade and perches. On the ground, tiny bamboo compartments for lizards to hide in are raised on stilts and set in trays of water to keep out ants. Hatchling iguanas are about the length and thickness of a person’s little finger, but in six months they more than double in length. There appear to be many advantages to raising iguanas in captivity. More than one half of Dr. Werner’s iguanas reach sexual maturity by the age of two, a year earlier than in the wild. Nearly 100% survive in captivity, a vast improvement over nature, where 95% fall prey to predators in their first two years. The year-old iguanas weigh at least twice as much as their wild counterparts. They are raised on cheap high-protein supplements, fresh-cut leaves, flowers and fruits. The bottom line is we should make more explotion about how important human should give this animal more caring to avoid this animal from disappearing from this planet. Thats why we should know more about iguana care.
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