Iguana Farming

My boyfriend has property in Nicaragua, very close to the Costa Rican border, and he has been researching iguana farming as a way to help save the wild population from being obliterated. We have found very few links online (one on MK's site, but not many others) and he was also able to obtain some "how to" pamplets from a Costa Rican iguana sanctuary that recently shut down. Does anyone here know anything or have experience doing this? In Nicaragua there is a holiday during which they eat (Im sorry guys) a gravid female iguana, thereby whiping out many at once, and they sell the poor critters at the market for about a buck. My boyfriend is thinking of buying a few of these females so they can lay their eggs on his farm and begin the process of raising iguanas to be released in the wild.

Any thoughts or experiences you can share?

I think it's a great idea, but be aware with any venture like this, there'll be tons of red tape, politics, and expense. It won't come easy, but then again nothing worth achieving ever is. I can't say I know much about the "way" to go about this, but I do know that dealing with a lot of governments in south and central america isn't easy. It'll take a LOT of investigating and probably a lot of financial investment on your part to become an actual sanctuary. Not sure. All I can really say is do a lot of home work on this before committing. Don't get me wrong, the idea is fantastic and if the opportunity becomes available, don't pass it up. Good luck.

Thanks, actually Nicaragua is almost void of reserves for wildlife and could honestly care less about our private rehabilitation center. We already own the farm, which is HUGE, and the materials outlined in the brochures (which I cant list specifically here because I am not at home with the info) are very simple building materials....In Costa Rica I do believe we would run into the problems you describe because they have a protocol about those things....unfortunately Nicaragua is far far behind times due to many setbacks it has experienced over the last century. This makes it easy for us to do what we want, but it also makes it easy for other people to do what they want-namely chopping down trees, hunting threatened species, and throwing garbage everywhere. (Yikes, I didn't mean to sound so negative but sometimes it is hard to feel positive when you are surrounded by such poverty.)

I think a good place to start is by contacting the International Reptile Conservation Foundation (www.ircf.org) and find out if there are other ig species in Nicaragua that are in MORE need of conservation. I don't know if there are Rock (Cyclura) or Spiny Tail (Ctenosaura) Igs down there, but my guess is that they'd be more in need of conservation.

Best of luck and keep us posted!

Thanks for the link Steph, I'll check it out. Actually there are other species
(black and spiny tailed) but they are much more abundant because they arn't considered an appealing food....the green iguana is almost unseen in this area because they have been hunted so thoroughly. Thats why this holiday where they eat the gravid female is especially horrid.....when hanging out at the river or streams you will easily see black iguanas but the green iguana has become extremely rare.

I would think though to change that you would first need to get people to change their way of thinking about the green iguanas. And that would need to be done through education. Otherwise they will just be hunted down again.

Very good point, Marie.

Marie is right, all about supply and demand, trying to farm like this would increase the supply at cost to you but get nothing from it (no that warm fuzzy feeling does not mean a thing economically).

If you do actually try to do this rather than trying to buy gravid females and raise igs from eggs like this look into buying hatchlings from another farm or breeding operation.

One idea you will have to get used to is igs are food in many areas. Cans are even starting to be sold in some hispanic markets in the US. We are the strange ones in that we try to keep these wild animals as pets.