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Iguanas, a trendy pet in the U.S., are becoming endangered
June 4, 1997
Web posted at: 11:47 p.m. EDT (0347 GMT)(CNN) -- It's a common sight along Central American highways: young children hawking iguanas they have captured to passing motorists.
It's illegal, but that doesn't stop the kids from selling the exotic reptiles to help put food on the family table.
(1.4M/37 sec. small frame QuickTime movie) (2.9M/37 sec. large frame QuickTime movie)
In Honduras, iguana trafficking has become so prolific that the reptile is now an endangered species.
But Miguel Facusse is trying to counter the threat by breeding iguanas at a farm in the southern part of the country.
He is taking 10,000 iguanas, which he intends to reproduce and set free. "We hope that this is successful to take to other lands in the country," the iguana breeder said.
The secret to breeding iguanas lies with the male. When it's time to mate, he takes on an orange color. The deeper, the orange, the more females he's likely to attract.
Once they can make it on their own, they are released into the wilderness.
"It is not a lucrative thing," Facusse says. "We just want them to come back. I think it will make a richer country and it certainly will make me much more happy to see them how they were 30 years ago."
So far about 7,000 iguanas have been bred here, making the farm look a bit like a miniature "Jurassic Park."
Iguanas can live up to 20 years and can grow to be more than two meters long.
The reptiles have always been sought after in Central America because iguana soup is considered an elixir -- and an aphrodisiac.
In recent years, iguanas have become fashionable in the United States as exotic pets, fueling the demand for the reptiles and prompting concern that they could become extinct, like the dinosaurs that preceded them.
But the iguana breeding project in Honduras is a small step toward keeping the Central American jungle from becoming the iguana's lost world.
Related sites:
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- Guide to Keeping Giant Green Iguanas in Captivity
- Giant Green Iguana Care Page
- The International Iguana Society
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