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The Galapagos Land Iguana is yellow or brown in color with spots throughout its ventrum and dorsum. A spikey dorsal crest runs along the neck and back. This is a large (>48 in), heavy bodied lizard, with thick back legs and smaller front legs. There are long, sharp claws on its toes. It has a short blunt head and pleurodont teeth. Its tail is quite a bit longer than its trunk. (Mattison 1989).
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 15.0 years.
Average lifespan
Sex: male
Status: captivity: 7.3 years.
The lizards live in land burrows, which offer protection from the hot sun. Many islands on which the iguanas live are quite arid.
Terrestrial Biomes: scrub forest
The Galapagos Land Iguana is native to the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador. It is formerly widely distributed on these islands, though its numbers are now greatly reduced (Mattison 1989, Cogger and Zweifel, 1998).
Biogeographic Regions: oceanic islands (Native ); pacific ocean (Native )
The Galapagos Land Iguana is listed as a threatened species by the World Conservation Union (Baillie and Groombridge 1996). Threats include destruction of eggs and young lizards by introduced rats and cats, and destruction of food plants by introduced goats.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: vulnerable
No adverse effects.
This species was observed by Darwin early in the 19th Century; Darwin noted its similarity to iguanas on the South American mainland, as well as its obvious adaptations to local conditions. These and other observations of Galapagos wildlife contributed in part to Darwin's theory of evolution.
Today the Land Iguanas are an important part of the unique Galapagos fauna, and studies of their biology, as well as conservation programs, are continuing.
The Land Iguana is largely a vegetarian. The prickly pear cactus (Opuntia) is a major food source; the lizard eats the cactus fruit and leaves by moving the cactus around in its mouth until all the spines are worked off (Mattison 1989).
These lizards have a mating ritual where the male agressively courts the female. Males defend territories around their burrows that both they and females use as shelter, and most courtship occurs around these burrows. Females are attracted to male's territories with burrows, but these burrows are not used for nesting. (Werner 1982).
Female Land Iguanas lay soft-shelled eggs with permeable shells. About 25 eggs are laid in burrows in moist sand or under leaf litter. On the arid, rocky island of Fernandina, females may travel more than 15 km to find good nest sites, sometimes within the crater of a dormant volcano. When places to lay eggs become scarce, competition between females occurs and some eggs already laid may be disturbed by another iguana (Werner 1983, Mattison 1989). Hatchlings appear in about three to four months, and may take about a week to dig out of the nest cavity (Terraquest 1996).
The Galápagos land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus) is a very large species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. It is one of three species of the genus Conolophus. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands, in the dry lowlands of the islands of Fernandina, Isabela, Santa Cruz, North Seymour, Baltra, and South Plaza.[1][3][4]
The land iguanas in the Galápagos vary in morphology and coloration among different populations.[5] In addition to the relatively widespread and well-known Galápagos land iguana (C. subcristatus), there are two other species of Conolophus: the Galápagos pink land iguana (C. marthae) from northern Isabela Island and the Santa Fe land iguana (C. pallidus) from Santa Fe Island.[5][6] Based on mtDNA, land iguanas and marine iguanas diverged about 8–10 million years ago.[7][8] Within the land iguana genus, the oldest split based on mtDNA, about 5.7 million years old, is between C. subcristatus and C. marthae.[8][9] A more recent study that included both mtDNA and nuclear DNA indicates that the marine iguana split from the land iguana about 4.5 million years ago, and among the land iguanas C. subcristatus and C. marthae split from each other about 1.5 million years ago.[10] The differentiation between the last two species, C. subcristatus and C. pallidus, is less clear and it has been questioned whether they are separate species.[5] Based on mtDNA and cytochrome b, they fall into three monophyletic groups: C. subcristatus of western islands (Isabela and Fernandina), C. subcristatus of central islands (Santa Cruz, Baltra and South Plaza) and C. pallidus. Although the exact pattern is uncertain, it is possible that C. pallidus is closer to one of the C. subcristatus groups than the two C. subcristatus groups are to each other.[9]
Its specific name subcristatus is derived from the Latin words sub meaning "lesser" and cristatus meaning "crested", and refers to the low crest of spines along the animal's back, which is not as tall as in most iguanas.
Charles Darwin described the Galápagos land iguana as "ugly animals, of a yellowish orange beneath, and of a brownish-red colour above: from their low facial angle they have a singularly stupid appearance."[11] The Galápagos land iguana one of the largest lizards in the world[12] growing to a length of 0.9 to 1.5 m (3–5 ft) with a body weight of up to 13 kg (29 lb), depending upon which island they are from.[13][14] Being cold-blooded, they absorb heat from the sun by basking on volcanic rock, and at night sleep in burrows to conserve their body heat.[13] These iguanas also enjoy a symbiotic relationship with birds; the birds remove parasites and ticks, providing relief to the iguanas and food for the birds.[3][15]
Land iguanas are primarily herbivorous; however, some individuals have shown that they are opportunistic carnivores supplementing their diet with insects, centipedes and carrion.[3] Because fresh water is scarce on its island habitats, the Galápagos land iguana obtains the majority of its moisture from the prickly-pear cactus, which makes up 80% of its diet. All parts of the plant are consumed, including the fruit, flowers, pads, and even spines.[3][13] During the rainy season it will drink from available standing pools of water and feast on yellow flowers of the genus Portulaca.[13][15]
The Galápagos land iguana has a 60 to 69 year lifespan.[3][14]
Galápagos land iguanas become sexually mature anywhere between eight and fifteen years of age, depending on which island they are from.[3] Mating season also varies between islands, but soon after mating, the females migrate to sandy areas to nest, laying 2–20 eggs in a burrow about 50 cm (20 in) deep.[3] The eggs hatch anywhere from 90 to 125 days later.[3][14]
On South Plaza Island, where the territories of marine iguanas and land iguanas overlap, the two sometimes interbreed, resulting in a hybrid iguana that shows a mixture of features from each species.[3] The most likely unions tend to be between male marine iguanas and female land iguanas. Despite their long separation time and their being two distinct species from different genera, the offspring are viable, although likely sterile.[3][5]
It is estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 land iguanas are found in the Galápagos Islands.[3] These iguanas were so abundant on Santiago Island at one time that naturalist Charles Darwin remarked when it was called King James Island that "...when we were left at James, we could not for some time find a spot free from their burrows on which to pitch our single tent".[13][16] In the years since then, entire populations (including all the animals on Santiago Island) have been wiped out by introduced feral animals such as pigs, rats, cats, and dogs.[3][13]
Researchers theorize that Galápagos land iguanas and marine iguanas evolved from a common ancestor since arriving on the islands from South America, presumably by rafting.[17][18] The marine iguana diverged from the land iguana some 8 million years ago, which is older than any of the extant Galápagos islands.[19][7] It is therefore thought that the ancestral species inhabited parts of the volcanic archipelago that are now submerged. The two species remain mutually fertile in spite of being assigned to distinct genera, and they occasionally hybridize where their ranges overlap.
Beginning in the early 1990s, the Galápagos land iguana has been the subject of an active reintroduction campaign on Baltra Island. These animals became extinct on Baltra by 1954, allegedly wiped out by soldiers stationed there who shot the iguanas for amusement.[3][15] However, in the early 1930s, William Randolph Hearst had translocated a population of land iguanas from Baltra to North Seymour Island, a smaller island just a few hundred metres north of Baltra, because he could not understand why no iguanas were present there. Hearst's translocated iguanas survived and became the breeding stock for the Charles Darwin Research Station captive breeding program that has successfully reintroduced the species to Baltra and a number of other areas.[3] Visitors today frequently see iguanas on both the runway of the Baltra airport or while they cross the road.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link) The Galápagos land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus) is a very large species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. It is one of three species of the genus Conolophus. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands, in the dry lowlands of the islands of Fernandina, Isabela, Santa Cruz, North Seymour, Baltra, and South Plaza.
