Galapagos Pink Iguana: A Rare and Bright Sighting

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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Rich Schwartz and I'm ebony Mone. Welcome to Amazing Wildlife, where we explore unique stories of wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts. This podcast is a production of I Heart Radio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, in international nonprofit conservation organization behind the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. Today, we're going to learn about a unique lizard found in only one place in the world. The pink iguanas of the Galapacos Islands are critically endangered. Scientists are trying to figure out why juvenile pink iguanas have become a rare sighting. We will be speaking with an iguana expert, Dr Glenn Gerber with San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance about this unique pink species rick Galapagos. Pink Iguanas are only found in one area of one island in the Galapacos is Can you tell us about the habitat okay, ebony I think first it's important to make sure our listeners know a little bit about the Globicus Islands. I mean, more accurately referred to as a Glopicus archipelago. This cluster of thirteen islands is located over six miles off the coast of Ecuador. You know, it straddles the equator, which really it gives it a very unique sort of position with all its habitats. It's a remarkable location where several different water currents all come together, offering up this unique blend of marine life. And the many islands, although very well known for their giant tortoises, are home to amazing and unique wildlife species. And as much as I could go on about the many different ecosystems that can be found on each island, I will simply say this. I know from my personal experience of being there, you can explore four very very different ecosystems on just one island in less than a day. Okay, so obviously you're you're a fan of the glopicos islands. Say we've hit on a subject that you're pretty excited about. But what about the pink iguanas and in their habitat but ebony, are you sure? Iguana? Move on? I could do a whole episode about the amazing you got that seriously, though, I could do a whole episode about the amazing habitats and ecosystems of the Glopicus islands. So yes, I would iguana move on? Alright? So fair enough, let's let's jump into it. Interestingly enough, the Glopicus pink iguana was not officially documented by science as its own species, or sometimes referred to as officially describing the species, until two thousand nine. And in the realm of you know, describing or discovering species, that's fairly recent and it's worth noting they can only be found in a small and remote area at the very top of Wolf Volcano and active volcano on Isabella Island. Now, Rick, when I first heard about iguanas living close to the volcano, I immediately thought the worst. I was like, oh, no, does this volcano present a survival challenge? Yeah, I think it's fair to say, abny that when you live on an active or near an active volcano, there's a chance of some serious challenges. Now, Wolf volcanoes most recent eruption was January of two and prior to that, there was an eruption in two thousand fifteen. Now, volcano eruptions can be anywhere from a lava flow to a spewing of heat and gases ash plumes, or a combination of any of those All of those things could pose a risk to the wildlife living around the volcano, but sometimes volcanoes also create the perfect ecosystem for some species as long as they can survive the eruptions. The good news is the most recent eruptions did not seem to pose any risk to the local wildlife. That it's good news. So far, we've established that the Galapacos pink iguanas are found in a remote habitat and nature with added challenges. But what about the pink iguana itself? Can we get into some of what makes it stand out? Besides pink? Pink? Well, well, yes, I know ebony, and what I mean by that is we do know some things about them, but we are also still learning about them too. First and foremost, I think it's important to let everyone know they are indeed pink, almost a salmon color if you were to see them with some dark gray bands or black markings that help break up their body pattern. Other than that, they look very much like other ground iguanas that reside on the Glabacus Islands. But just because they look very similar to other iguanas on the island, it is worth noting that they are as separate species, and of course this is very important for the future survival of the pink iguana as far as diet. Like other iguanas found in the region, they are primarily herbivores, eating prickly pair cactus leaves and fruit in the dry grasslands and deciduous forests of the area around the volcano. So rick pink iguanas are both new and own. How is it that a species that has origins that have been traced back millions of years can also be relatively newly just covered. Yeah, that that does seem kind of odd, doesn't it, But it is fair to say the species has been around for a very very long time. And it is also fair to say there are parts of the world that humans haven't explored, and that's kind of the case here with our friend the pink iguana. Although Charles Darwin and other explorers recorded many unique species during their explorations of the Globatus Islands, they didn't explore every single part of the island, and specifically that applies here to this topic, because there was never a sighting of a pink iguana until a park ranger saw them in and like we mentioned previously, it wasn't until two thousand nine, twenty three years later, that they were officially described as their own species. Wow. So how big of a deal is it for scientists to identify a new species as they did as you just mentioned with the pink iguana. Well, it is a really big deal e any I mean, these kind of findings give us the opportunity to better understand the world around us and the importance of the ecosyst them here on earth. So the pink iguana, unfortunately isn't faring well in nature. Scientists describe its population size as dangerously low. Rick. How are cats of all things presenting a major conservation hurdle? Yes, unfortunately, Ebony. This is something we see with many island species of wildlife. The glopagus pink iguana has lived on the island for millions of years, and in that time, predation from land carnivores didn't really exist. Additionally, they didn't have to worry about the nest being rated by rodents who liked eat eggs. But as humans started to visit and inhabit these islands, rats, mice, and domestic cats were all introduced to the island and started to roam freely. Additionally, it was common practice for sailors traveling around the world to drop off goats on the islands, allowing them to flourish on these islands that lacked any predators. The sailors did this because they knew they could stop by the islands and have goats available for food later on. Unfortunately, these goats enjoy the same food that the iguanas eat, and the rats and mice that were introduced enjoy rating the ground nest that the iguanas have eating their eggs, and with the introduction of cats roaming freely, young iguanas are easy prey as they are unable to protect themselves from these new predators. And now, with all that said, it's worth mentioning the Galapagos National Park, along with several conservation partners, are working diligently to solve the challenges that the pink iguana and other iguana species face. So there's some good news on that front. Scientists have devised a way to learn more about the pink iguana and an effort to protect and save it from extinction. We're talking to Dr Glenn Gerber as Sant Diego Zoo Whildlife Alliance scientists and population sustainability and an iguana expert about that. But first this. Now it's time for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Minute, an opportunity for you to learn what's new good news and conservation. The Stephen's kangaroo rat was reclassified from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This comes after thirty years of conservation efforts. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has teamed with federal, state and local agencies, including US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency and other partners to work on long term conservation programs for the species. Stephen's kangaroo rats lived throughout San Diego and Riverside Counties, but many people have never heard of them, let alone seen one. This is mainly because kangaroo rats are nocturnal. They spend their days in underground boroughs and come about ground at night to forge for seeds. The population of pink iguanas is currently estimated between two hundred and three hundred animals. Dr Glenn Gerber is a San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance scientists and population sustainability He works to come up with new solutions to improve conservation efforts for reptile species. High gwinn Hi, I have any nice to be here. So, as someone who has made a career of studying reptiles, what's your reaction when you learned of the discovery of the pink iguanas? Honestly, because it was in the Galapagos Islands, which is such a well studied archipela go and everybody knows it because of Darwin's drea of evolution. I was absolutely floored. So I've been studying island iguana species for thirty years and uh never imagined that, uh, you know, four and a half foot long black and pink lizard living on top of a volcano and Galapagos would be discovered described a science in the twenty second century. Absolutely blew me away. And how many different species of iguana are in the galopical side ones currently there are four species of iguanas described for the Galapagos marine iguana, which most people are familiar with, one of the most unique iguana species on the planet that actually feeds on algae growing on rocks in the water, which is a very unique thing. And then three species of land iguana is one of which is the pink iguana. And can you help us to understand um from a science perspective and in possibly a conservation perspective. What's the significance of identifying these separate species. Well, each of these species represents a unique evolutionary lineage. Marine iguanas and land iguanas split from each other. They shared a common ancestor and split from each other about four and a half million years ago. The land iguana lineage subsequently split to form the three species we have today. The pink iguana split from the others about one and a half million years ago, so it's one of the more ancient lineages of land iguanas and the glapos. And can you speak to the uniqueness of the Galapagos pink iguana. Yeah, well it's you know, newly described to science. It's pink, of course, the others are various shades of yellow and black. And it has a very small range and a very small population, so it's highly endangered because of those things. And when we when we think about pink animals, I know, I think of birds like flamingos and spoonbills. Are there other pink reptiles and are their advantages to being pink. There are a few other pink reptiles, although very few in the wild. Most reptiles and amphibians and fish that are pink, it's because they lack melanin or lack pigment. So what you're seeing when you see the pink in the iguana is actually blood vessels near the surface. Whether or not that's adaptive, we don't know. But there are quite a few pink animals under human care that breeders have produced for the reptile trade, and that's very popular. But those animals don't exist in nature for the most part. And we opened up the conversation mentioning that there are two hundred are three hundred of these animals left. How serious is the situation for for the species with the population that's small, it's critical, So they're listed is critically endangered on the i c N Red List of Threatened Species, which is sort of the world authority for those sorts of things. So not only are there very few animals, but they all exist in a single population, and that population lives on the edge of an active volcano. So if that volcano erupted um on their side, it could be devastating there's no backup per se. The other thing is just all sorts of ocasticity can happen in a population that's small of a disease where to come through, it could wipe the population out. There are issues with feral predators, and as I think you're aware, the population is composed almost entirely of adults, which is a problem for the species well. And they also have a nesting practice that that's not helping either. Can you describe the nesting practice. I wouldn't say the nesting practice isn't helping, but um so iguanas they often live in burrows in the ground that they have dugout, and they'll live in them for decades sometimes um and crevices and rocks and things like that. When they nest, the females go to a usually a separate area, dig a long tunnel underground and excavate a chamber at the end of that tunnel that's big enough for them to turn around, and they lay their eggs in there, and there has to be an air pocket over those eggs for them to develop, and then they backfill that tunnel and seal it, so the eggs are essentially sealed underground. Usually in an area that's exposed to full sunlight. They incubate for about two and a half three months, and the juveniles communally take a exit tunnel and emerge. But when they emerge, they're obviously much much smaller than adults, and there's no parental care once they're so once they emerge, there on your own. So those little lizards are much much more vulnerable to predators, both native and introduced. Gun. You mentioned that most of the pink iguanas are adults. Is can you explain why is is that? Is that why most of the pink iguanas currently are adults. Yeah, So the situation is these are very long lived animals um four to fifty sixty years, perhaps longer um. Once they reach adulthood, they are pretty immune from predators. Galapagos has a hawk which probably can't take a full grown adult I wanna um, and it has introduced predators in the form of feral cats and rats, which definitely can't take an adult iguana. But all of those predators, and there's also a native snake a racer that can prey on the juveniles, and a level of predation is so high that very few, if any juveniles survived to adulthood. So this is a really critical situation because obviously a population that can't replace itself is due to extinction. So there are two ways we're hoping to deal with that. One is some of our partners at Island Conservation and Hoko Toko Foundation, which is an Ecuadorian ngo um with support from Real Wild, are implementing feral cat control measures for the entire range of pink iguanas on Wolf Volcano, So we're hoping to suppress the cats from that area. Isabella is too big an island to get rid of all the cats, but if we can exclude them from the area where the pink iguanas are, then some of these juveniles should be able to survive and make it to reproductive maturity. The second approaches what we call head starting, which is locating the nesting grounds for these females pink iguanas, protecting those nests, and collecting the juveniles as they emerge from those nests, and moving some of those juveniles to a captive facility where they can be reared until they're large enough to be returned to the wild and survived with feral cats. So is that why researchers are are tracking iguanas. Can you talk about the process of tracking iguanas and the special technology being used. Absolutely. So. One of the challenges of working on Wolf Volcano is that it's extremely remote. So Isabella is the largest island in the Galapagos. It's composed of six volcanoes that merged. Wolf is the largest one of those. It's over a mile high and almost all of Isabella is uninhabited, so it's forty miles from Wolf Volcano to the only small village at the south end Isabella. There are no roads, there are no footpaths, there's nothing. It's either a two or three day hike from sea level to over a mile high or a helicopter ride. On top of that, you can't go anywhere in the Galapagos Islands without National Park rangers. They are not going to make extensive trips, so you usually limited to a couple of weeks at best. So we developed a tracking technology to try and figure out where these pink iguanas are living exactly, and in particular where the females are nesting. We wanted to use green technology, so rather than putting a lithium ion battery in a transmitter and attaching it to an iguana and essentially introducing that poison into the environment. We worked with engineers at the Universe City of Towards Regatta in Rome, Italy, and developed a tracking device that has a solar panel and a solar capacitor which stores energy just temporarily while the sun is shining. As soon as there's enough energy in the capacitor, it turns on the transmitter. It records a GPS location, several environmental variables, and logs that data onto a microchip and then shuts itself off and the process repeats over and over. So we started doing that and started attaching those units two animals in twenty nineteen and again in and the data are relayed via a satellite gateway. When the iguanas get within range of the gateway, the data is uploaded via this gateway transmitted via satellite back to a server at the University of Rome Towars Regatta. Wow, so what's next and the efforts to save the pink iguana? Are you going to have to figure out how to protect um the eggs in that remote location. Yeah, so there's really a three pronged effort under way. First is the one I already mentioned about what the groups who are working to control the feral predators, the cats in particular. Second is putting more transmitters on female iguanas and locating their specific nest sites, protecting them, monitoring them, collecting some of those juveniles and transferring them to a head start facility that will be operated by the Glacost National Park Directorate and other partners. And then the sort of third and final approach is ultimately using some of those head started animals to found an additional population on another island. So again, because these animals are in a single population and that population happen, it's to be on the edge of a very active volcano. Even solving the reproductive issue and the predator issue doesn't give them a very secure future. So we're looking at other sites on other islands for habitat that will be good for a pink iguana population. Ultimately, we will use some of those head started animals to found a new population on another islands. So that will be at least two populations, which will give us a hedge against extinction. Dr Glenn Gerber with San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, thanks for talking with us. Thank you. It's been my pleasure that reps of our talk about the Galapagos pink iguana. We hope you learned a lot. Thanks for listening, and be sure to subscribe and tune into next week's episode, in which we'll bring you the story of a great ape species so closely related to chimpanzees. It was first thought that they were a pigmy version of the gymps. My new favorite great ape. I just gotta shout that from the tree job. Yes, I'm Ebony Money and I'm Rich Schwartz. Thanks for listening. If you would like to find out more about San Diego Zoo Wildlack Alliance, please visit sdz w a dot org Amazing Wildlife. As a production of I Heart Radio, our producer is Nikia Swinton and our executive producer is Marci to Peanut. Our audio engineer and editor is Sierra Spreen. For more shows from My Heart Radio, check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.