“The critically endangered Lesser Antillean iguana is recovering after conservationists relocated some of the species’ last survivors to an island free of competing lizards,” reports The Doomslayer.
Euronews reports:
The Lesser Antillean iguana is a critically endangered species that has disappeared from much of its range across the Eastern Caribbean.
The small and uninhabited islet of Prickly Pear East, near Anguilla, is not what you might describe as a romantic holiday destination full of young hopefuls searching for love.
But for the Lesser Antillean iguana, it has proved to be just that…
In 2016, with the invasive iguanas multiplying rapidly across the main island of Anguilla, conservationists from the Anguilla National Trust began translocating the last Lesser Antillean iguanas from the mainland – 23 in total – to an alien-free islet, Prickly Pear East.
Less than five years on, new survey data has revealed that efforts are paying off, with more than 300 adults and adolescents counted on Prickly Pear East. The island now represents one of only five sites in the world where Lesser Antillean Iguanas are thriving, safe from invasive alien species.
An endangered flat-headed cat was recently discovered.
Bison have made a comeback in Europe. “In the 1920s, there were just 54 European bison, all in captive areas, after intense hunting over millennia, but thanks to rewilding efforts there are now around 10,000″ bison in Europe, “mostly in Russia and Belarus.”
A rare flightless grasshopper was recently found in Virginia, where such grasshoppers had not been seen for 79 years.
Mountain gorillas are making a comeback in the African country of Rwanda.
The critically-endangered Siberian crane is growing more numerous.
