Over the past decade, Prickly Pear East, a small, privately owned island in the Caribbean, has become a beacon of hope for a critically endangered lizard. The islet, near the main island of Anguilla, a British territory, is one of just five locations where the lesser Antillean iguana (Iguana delicatissima) is breeding and thriving, protected from invasive iguanas and human disturbances, conservationists say. The latest surveys, from July, show the species’ population on Prickly Pear East has grown to more than 300 adults and adolescents — up from just 23 individuals that were moved there from Anguilla starting in 2016. “This is a wonderful reward after having invested several years of work to plan this reintroduction, engage with their local communities, eradicate the non-native rats, and survey and protect the precious iguana population,” Jenny Daltry, Caribbean alliance director of the NGOs Fauna & Flora and Re:wild, which are supporting the NGO Anguilla National Trust in the iguana’s conservation, told Mongabay by email. The lesser Antillean iguana was once widespread across the Caribbean, but habitat destruction, hunting, and the introduction of invasive species, including the common green iguana (I. iguana), led to its extinction across several islands. It was also on the verge of being wiped out from Anguilla mainland. So, between 2016 and 2021, conservationists translocated Anguilla’s remaining 23 individuals to the uninhabited Prickly Pear East. The islet had a suitable habitat for the native iguana; it also lacked invasive iguanas, and conservationists had eradicated all invasive brown rats by…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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