De zwarte leguanenpopulatie op Saba en haar bedreigingen

The black iguana population on Saba and its threats The Caribbean island of Saba is home to a rare melanistic form of the green iguana (Iguana iguana). Given our poor knowledge about this endemic keystone species, we performed a baseline population assessment during one month of fieldwork e!ort in 2021. We found the population to be much larger than previously estimated and occurring island-wide. Alarmingly, we identified only few nesting sites and very few juvenile iguanas, suggesting low recruitment in this population. Low recruitment rates also seem driven by the presence of a large predacious feral cat- and a large goat population that harms the nest sites and potentially also alters the vegetation. Most worrisome is the confirmation of non-native iguanas that now threaten the population with hybridization Op het Nederlands Caribische eiland Saba komt een zeldzame zwarte variant van de groene leguaan voor. Er was verrassend weinig over bekend, maar daarin komt nu verandering dankzij nieuwe kennis uit onze recente studies naar deze populatie. Ondanks dat de populatie groter is dan verwacht, is urgente actie noodzakelijk om die te beschermen tegen katten, geiten en — meest verontrustend — uitheemse leguanen.