How Tourists Are Changing the Diet of Endangered Iguanas - for the Worse Richard Conniff - TakePart
go to original January 24, 2014

The northern Bahamian rock iguana - Cyclura cychlura (Wikimedia)

Feeding the animals seems to be one of our universal impulses, whether we do it maliciously or in the misguided belief that we are doing them a favor. Either way, the animals generally suffer.

For instance: Almost 6 million people will visit the Bahamas over the coming year, most of them in the next few months. Local tour operators will convince many of them that feeding the iguanas is a good way to get close to nature. Some operators will even bill it as “ecotourism.”

The problem, says Charles Knapp, an iguana specialist at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, is that the Northern Bahamian rock iguana is one of the world’s most endangered lizards, with a dwindling population of just 5,000 individuals in the wild. Its habitat, on a handful of small islands, or cays, is threatened by development, introduced species, logging, the pet trade, and occasional hunting for the dinner table. Then along come the tour operators, filling boats with tourists who visit and scatter food on all but two cays (which are too difficult for a landing).

When Knapp first started studying the iguanas 20 years ago, they were skittish and rarely seen on beaches, preferring the island interior. Then, after the tour business got started about five years ago, he landed on a remote beach one day to find iguanas gathering all around him. Humans were suddenly a source of food rather than something to be feared, leaving the iguanas vulnerable “to be taken and smuggled for the pet trade or to be eaten,” Knapp says.

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