Post-hurricane relief facilitates invasion and establishment of two invasive alien vertebrate species in the Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies

Burg, Matthijs P. van den; Brisbane, Jeanelle L. K.; Knapp, Charles

doi:10.1007/s10530-019-02107-5

Cited by 27 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…For the Saba iguana population, at least two major threats are known. Firstly, the Lesser Antillean region is known for its high occurrence of nonnative iguana populations, which are spread as cargo shipment stowaways, by hurricanes and during ensuing hurricane-aid campaigns (Censky et al 1998;van den Burg et al 2020avan den Burg et al , 2021a. As iguanas within the Iguana genus, as well as with other Iguanid genera (Moss et al 2017), can hybridize (Vuillaume et al 2015), the threat of non-native iguana incursions is evident.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population estimate, natural history and conservation of the melanisticIguana Iguanapopulation on Saba, Caribbean Netherlands

Burg

Madden²,

Debrot

2022

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Intraspecific diversity is among the most important biological variables, although still poorly understood for most species. Iguana iguana is a Neotropical lizard known from Central and South America, including from numerous Caribbean islands. Despite the presence of native melanistic I. iguana populations in the Lesser Antilles, these have received surprisingly little research attention. Here we assessed population size, distribution, degree of melanism, and additional morphological and natural history characteristics for the melanistic iguanas of Saba, Caribbean Netherlands based on a one-month fieldwork visit. Using Distance sampling from a 38-transect dataset we estimate the population size at 8233 ±2205 iguanas. Iguanas mainly occurred on the southern and eastern sides of the island, between 180-390 m (max altitude 530 m), with highest densities both in residential and certain natural areas. Historically, iguanas were relatively more common at higher altitudes, probably due to more extensive forest clearing for agricultural reasons. No relationship was found between the degree of melanism and elevation, and few animals were completely melanistic. Furthermore, we found that body-ratio data collection through photographs is biased and requires physical measuring instead. Although the population size appears larger than previously surmised, the limited nesting sites and extremely low presence of juvenile and hatchling iguanas (2.4%), is similarly worrying as the situation for I. delicatissima on neighboring St. Eustatius. The island's feral cat and large goat population are suspected to impact nest site quality, nest success, and hatchling survival. These aspects require urgent future research to guide necessary conservation management.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population estimate, natural history and conservation of the melanisticIguana Iguanapopulation on Saba, Caribbean Netherlands

Burg

Madden²,

Debrot

2022

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“…Among Caribbean Iguanids, the conservation status of the Lesser Antillean iguana ( Iguana delicatissima ) has experienced the most rapid deterioration (van den Burg et al 2018a). Its pre-Colombian range has to date decreased by >80%, predominantly due to hybridization with Iguana iguana lineages (Vuillaume et al 2015; Pounder et al 2020), a process that was recently initiated on the last remaining ≥2 km 2 islands where I. delicatissima occurs (van den Burg et al 2018b, 2020; B. Angin pers. comm.).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hurricane-induced population decrease in a Critically Endangered long-lived reptile

Burg

Madden

T³

et al. 2021

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Catastrophic events, like hurricanes, bring lethal conditions that can have population-altering effects. The threatened Caribbean dry forest occurs in a region known for its high-intensity hurricane seasons and high species endemism, highlighting the necessity to better understand hurricane impacts as fragmentation and clearing of natural habitat continues. However, such studies remain rare, and for reptiles are mostly restricted to Anolis. Here we used single-season occupancy modeling to infer the impact of the intense 2017 Atlantic hurricane season on the critically endangered Lesser Antillean Iguana, Iguana delicatissima. We surveyed 30 transects across eight habitats on St. Eustatius during 2017-2019, which resulted in 344 individual surveys and 98 iguana observations. Analyses of abundance and site occupancy indicated both measures for 2018 and 2019 were strongly reduced compared to the pre-hurricane 2017 state. Iguanas at higher elevations were affected more profoundly, likely due to higher wind speeds, tree damage and extensive defoliation. Overall, our results indicate a decrease in population estimates (23.3-26.5%) and abundance (22-23.8%) for 2018 and 2019, and a 75% reduction in the number of opportunistic sightings of tagged iguanas between 2017-2018. As only small and isolated I. delicatissima populations remain, our study further demonstrates their vulnerability to stochastic events. Considering the frequency and intensity of hurricanes are projected to increase, our results stress the urgent need for population-increasing conservation actions in order to secure the long-term survival of I. delicatissima throughout its range.

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“…In particular, in Buddhism, releasing captive animals is believed to build spiritual merit (Agoramoorthy and Hsu 2005;Ng and Lim 2010). The invasions in the West Indies are, however, also traced to stowaways in construction and horticultural materials (van den Burg et al 2020b;Perry et al 2021) and iguanas surviving over-water dispersal on floating debris (Censky et al 1998).…”

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Using the iNaturalist application to identify reports of Green Iguanas (Iguana iguana) on the mainland United States of America outside of populations in Florida

Mo²

2022

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Presently, the only established populations of invasive Green Iguanas (Iguana iguana) on the mainland USA occur in Florida. We examined observation data from the online citizen-science application iNaturalist to determine the frequency of reports of free-living Green Iguanas in Florida and identify where iguanas have been reported in other parts of the mainland USA. Observations from Florida comprised 99.6% of the 5,929 verified Green Iguana observations from the mainland USA. The largest proportion were observations from 2016 to 2021, corresponding with an increasing number of application users contributing to the dataset during this period. The majority of Green Iguana observations from latitudes of 27–41°N in 11 other mainland states were from California. However, we noted no obvious concentrations of sightings to indicate the presence of established populations in any of those 11 states. The majority of observations from outside Florida were adults and were most frequently reported from suburbia and urban parks, suggesting that released or escaped pets were the likely source. More than one third of iguanas reported outside Florida were near water, which is worrisome because iguanas are known to use waterways to disperse. This study clearly demonstrates the value of public participation in assembling sighting records of non-native animals, and we encourage engagement campaigns that leverage reports from members of the public to achieve early detections of potentially invasive species.

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Post-hurricane relief facilitates invasion and establishment of two invasive alien vertebrate species in the Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies

Cited by 27 publications

References 38 publications

Population estimate, natural history and conservation of the melanisticIguana Iguanapopulation on Saba, Caribbean Netherlands

Population estimate, natural history and conservation of the melanisticIguana Iguanapopulation on Saba, Caribbean Netherlands

Hurricane-induced population decrease in a Critically Endangered long-lived reptile

Using the iNaturalist application to identify reports of Green Iguanas (Iguana iguana) on the mainland United States of America outside of populations in Florida

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