Durrell scientists seek new homes for St Lucia whiptail lizards

24/01/2007 00:00:00 Less than 2,500 St Lucia Whiptails remain in the wild, found only on three islets off the coast of St Lucia, so scientists fighting to save the critically endangered lizard from extinction hope to introduce the restricted animal to new habitats. The lizard, only discovered in 1966 and thought to have been once common across all of St Lucia, was reduced to just 2 populations on the uninhabited sister islands of Maria Minor and Maria Major when mongooses were introduced into St Lucia.

In 1995 scientists from The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, working with the St Lucia Forestry Department, moved 42 of the lizards to Praslin Island, which had been cleared of rats that eat the lizards’ eggs and young, to found a 3rd population. The move resulted in a thriving colony of lizards with latest estimates showing that the population has grown to 335.

The trust hopes to repeat its success and is currently investigating the possibility of founding further populations on 2 more islands which have been returned to a rat free state and designated as nature reserves. Dr Matt Morton, who leads Durrell’s wildlife conservation programmes in the Eastern Caribbean, said: ‘In order to preserve this species our operational objective is to maintain a minimum of 500 lizards on 5 different sites. This would help safeguard the animal against losses caused by natural disasters such as hurricanes because we would no longer have all our eggs in one basket.

‘We have shown that the animals can successfully re-colonise new habitats and this approach appears to be the most positive step we can take to secure this animal’s future.’

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