Blue Iguana Conservation, run by The National Trust for the Cayman Islands, is a project that strives to protect and conserve these charismatic animals by monitoring protected blue iguana areas and maintaining a conservation breeding facility in North Side, which is open to the public.
The Blue Iguana Gardens initiative is aimed to engage the Caymanian community in identifying areas within private yards and gardens in order to grow and maintain supplemental food sources for the blue iguanas housed at the conservation breeding facility. By empowering the general public to become involved in growing food plants, the pressure on wild food collection sites will be eased and Cayman will become better engaged with this incredible species that is not found anywhere else in the world!
A tour of the Blue Iguana Conservation’s captive breeding facility offers an up-close-and-personal view of the Blue Iguana (Cyclura lewisi), Grand Cayman’s largest native land animal. The tour introduces guests to some of the programme’s star breeders and shares the fascinating tale of how the programme began in 1990, with only 30 dedicated Blue Iguanas, under the direction of conservationist Fred Burton. Today, the breeding facility is home to approximately 100 Blue Iguanas of varying ages, many over five-feet long and in excess of 25 pounds.
