Anegada – Saving the Most Primitive of the Iguana Species
I managed to get chosen to help supervise students on Anegada, British Virgin Islands. My job was to help monitor, assist in the research, and manage students doing conservation research on the Rock Iguana. This species is the MOST primitive of the iguana species and is also one of the most critically endangered species. It was a honor to see these incredible creatures in the wild. I never thought that I would pursue reptiles, since I am a bird person, but if I was asked to focus on iguanas I would do it in a heart beat!
Neptune’s Treasure was our choice of inn while on the island. It was remote, almost like everything else on the island! Only 300 people actually live on the island and make their living. It is a hard life and the tourists keeps the businesses from plummeting. It is expensive, do not get me wrong. The food ranges $12 dollars for a simple salad to $50 for spiny lobster. However, the food is AMAZING. When looking at those prices, understand that they must charge those prices to bring food home to their own table. There are tourist seasons, thus they must charge high prices to make it through those months when they barely receive any visitors.
The Rock Iguana has an interesting behavior. When angered or agitated, they will raise their tails. In this photo, the female was agitated by the second female not captured in this photo. Our female here was smaller than the other female eating our grapes. However, the smaller female had an attitude about her and managed to stand her ground to the larger female. I caught this behavior on video. I may post this at a later time. I was knocked over during the filming so it needs a little editing.
Nighttime in Anegada is one that MUST be captured. There were a few nights where there were no clouds in the sky, however this night it seemed to work out for me.
Here are a few photos that are share-worthy from the trip! Enjoy!
Aplomado Photography 