Galapagos land iguana  (Conolophus subcristatus)

Range

Land iguanas are endemic to the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador (4). Conolophus subcristatus is native to six islands (2). In 1835 when Charles Darwin first went to the Galapagos, land iguanas were extremely numerous; he wrote: “I cannot give a more forcible proof of their number, then by stating that when we were left at Santiago Island, we could not for some time find a spot free from their burrows on which to pitch our single tent”. Sadly, this once thriving Santiago Island population has become completely extinct (6).

View a distribution map for this species at UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Habitat

This iguana lives in the drier areas of the islands on which they occur, in scrubby habitats (5) (4). Females require access to areas of sandy or loose soil in which to lay their eggs; some females even use the ash around dormant volcanic craters (4).

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