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May

2008

7:02pm

Blue Iguanas

Posted by sheri c. (moonstardance) in General

2 comments

SIX BLUE IGUANAS MURDERED IN BOTANIC PARK

Six critically endangered Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas were killed by unknown persons late on Saturday evening, in the QE II Botanic Park. The crime was discovered by volunteers with the National Trust's Blue Iguana Recovery Programme, shortly after 9am on Sunday morning.

A small tour assembly area has been cleared and surfaced with crushed rock, and a comprehensive set of full colour interpretive and donor recognition signs for the captive facility tour areas has been designed by IRCF (in collaboration with the BIRP), and is now being manufactured. NTCI has been working with the QE II Botanic Park management to set up a simpler tour booking operation, whereby visitors to the Park will be able to buy their Blue Iguana tours on arrival at the Park ticket booth.Dead on Sunday morning were the adult breeding males "Yellow" (sponsored by Caribbean Publishers), "Pedro" (sponsored by Websters Tours), "Digger" (sponsored by Simon Hicks), and "Eldemire" (christened by Kent Eldemire). The grand matriarch of the captive facility, "Sara", was also dead. "Jessica" had been thrown out of the neighboring pen and was in shock, but still moving. Both females had been preparing to lay eggs.

The effort to save Jessica's life went on into the night, but despite specialist advice by telephone from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Dr. Wakelin's resourceful and determined attempts to stabilize her, she passed away during the night.

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2 comments found.

Janie C. (Jayknee)
1 day ago

I've already seen the page & donated to help out. THIS CRIME SICKENS ME BEYOND WORDS. I volunteered for 2 wks w/ the BIRP in the Cayman Islands, and it was one of the most magical (yet hard-working!) times of my life. To see these magnificent, HIGHLY ENDANGERED creatures in the wild (and at the park) was something I never thought I'd get to experience. I helped track blue iguana movements/mating patterns on the "farm" and briefly at the salina, and got to know some of the park igs. Digger, one of the cruelly murdered, was one of them. The park igs were quite used to humans, and very friendly, making the murder all the more reprehensible. I can't say any more about this than has already been said, but I hope the perpetrators are punished. The beauty of the park was its openness and to have to install greater security is a shame and a testament to the amorality of a perverted group of humans who have ruined it for all of us. RIP, Digger and all the other beautiful blues.