- [Mark] It's hard to imagine being the last
of your kind, being isolated, surrounded, and threatened.
But against the odds, even when every outcome pointed
to an all but certain doom for this species,
(triumphant music) life found a way.
(upbeat tropical music)
(birdsong)
Deep in the heart of the Caribbean Sea
on one of its many craggy islands lives a lizard
that has been brought back from the brink of extinction
and now roams this tropical landscape by the hundreds.
(ominous music)
That island is Grand Cayman and
that lizard is none other than the blue iguana.
And while an iguana might not immediately strike you
as being unique or noteworthy,
I assure you this one absolutely is
because it's blue, very blue, making it one
of the most beautiful and rarest iguanas on the planet.
Now to put things in perspective,
these lizards dwindled all the way down
to an estimated 15 total individuals in the wild,
making them functionally extinct.
Which is where our friend Fred Burton steps in.
Directly responsible
for creating the Blue Iguana Recovery Program,
Fred has offered us the unique opportunity
to get up close with these endangered reptiles
and tour the facility he started 15 years ago.
With such a rare chance to see one of these creatures
in person, the crew and I loaded up our cameras
and made our way to the most remote part of the island.
(bright, calm instrumental music)
Right now what we're doing is we're trying
to find one of the resident blue iguanas
that's habituated to humans.
His name is Peter and apparently he's big
and friendly and a great ambassador for his species.
So we're trying to get close to Peter.
Try to get the GoPro up close.
Try to get the cameras up close so you can see
why this is such a unique lizard species.
So Fred, do you want to lead the way?
- [Fred] So Peter's on his favorite rock.
- [Mark] Oh, is this Peter here?
- [Fred] Look at him, yes.
- Now that is an impressive iguana.
All right guys, let's come in Peter's enclosure here.
Wow, look at that!
Let's get a shot of Peter before we approach just
in case he wants to hop off that rock
'cause that is a great display of a blue iguana right there.
- [Fred] Yeah this is a unique species.
It's only found in Grand Cayman.
- [Mark] Okay so the blue iguana is endemic
to the Cayman Islands and it is a species of rock iguana.
We've seen rock iguanas in the past,
but I have never seen one this color.
I mean and you're telling me
that these blue iguanas get even more blue than this.
- [Fred] When they're in the breeding season, yeah.
He's kinda dull right now.
- [Mark] Really?
- [Fred] When he gets hot - I don't think you're dull
- [Fred] And excited - I think you look great.
- [Fred] And in March and April
when he's courting the girls, he will blaze blue,
really, really, really bright.
- [[Mark] Hi Peter, are we buddies?
Are we gonna be pals?
I think so.
So Fred, tell us a little about Peter.
How did he come to the program and why is he so friendly?
- He's an interesting case 'cause we were just walking
around out in the open there a good many years ago.
And we saw a young two year old just on the gravel.
And we thought, "Where did he come from?"
Figured it must be one of the free-roaming iguanas had laid
and hatched and whatnot, but we start thinking,
"Okay, we better catch it so we can get a blood sample
"and do the genetics and all those things."
So we're creeping up to this thing
and it's just looking at us.
It's not afraid.
You know, and we just walk up to this iguana
and pick him up and he doesn't run away.
And he's been like that ever since.
It's like he was born without the fear gene.
You know he just, he doesn't has no natural reaction
to humans. - Friendly since day one.
I like it.
So Peter's turning more blue because he's warming up
to us, is that what this is?
- [Fred] He likes the attention, yeah.
- All right!
Well who doesn't like a good head scratch?
So quick little disclaimer to everybody at home.
Don't go up to a wild iguana and pet it.
This is not a normal iguana.
This is an iguana that has been habituated
to humans and is used to this kind of interaction.
That is why we are able to get so close to Peter today.
If you try to do this to a wild rock iguana,
you're gonna get bit and if you look here
at Peter's mandibles, they have quite the powerful bite.
And they also have a couple rows of razor-sharp teeth.
So you definitely do not want to get your finger
or your hand caught in the jaws of a wild rock iguana.
So best to leave them alone
and give them their safe distance.
But man, are they cool!
- [Fred] So these, these beads we put
on every iguana we release and we also put them
on the captive iguanas in case they out.
And the idea is the combination of bead sizes
and bead colors is unique to each animal
so that you know if we're walking
around the park and we see an iguana
and we wanna know who that is,
all we need to do is train binoculars
on the beads, look 'em up in the database,
and we'll know exactly who we're dealing with.
The other thing we do - I think Peter's sleeping.
- [Fred] (laughing) The other thing we do is
we photograph the sides and the top of his head
and these big, enlarged scales.
If you look at the scales on the snout here,
they're all a little bit irregular right.
They're not perfectly symmetrical.
- [Mark] Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Fred] And every iguana has a slightly different
scale pattern; it's like a fingerprint.
So we got pictures of this guy.
And if this guy turned up somewhere he didn't want
to be and the pet tag was gone and the bead tag was gone,
we'd still be able to match the photograph
and say that is that iguana.
- [Mark] That is Peter. - That is Peter.
- [Mark] But just judging on how we're able
to approach Peter, I don't think it would take very long
to figure out who it was. (Fred laughs)
- [Fred] So one of the other cool things
about rock iguanas generally are the toes.
- [Mark] Okay.
- [Fred] So this is like a hook.
- [Mark] Looks like a talon to me.
- [Fred] So they can, they're quite good at climbing trees.
They don't, you know, they spend most
of the time on the ground, but they're quite good
at climbing trees and these claws hang
onto things really effectively.
And for females digging nests,
of course they're great for digging too.
But the weird thing is you know
how our hands bend like this?
These guys, I love this.
- [Mark] Oh, they bend right to left.
- [Fred] They don't bend this way.
They don't bend this way.
That they bend backwards.
- [Mark] That is very interesting, Peter.
- [Fred] And think about why
'cause right they're constantly pulling these things
through vegetation.
- And now Fred is there any other distinct characteristic
about the blue iguana that's worth noting today?
- I like to mention this little thing here.
- Okay.
- [Fred] Do you see that little scale there?
It looks translucent. - I do.
- [Fred] So that's the pineal eye.
And that's a very primitive feature in reptiles.
But these aren't primitive animals.
Light can get through there and we think
that there is a brain receptor in there.
And they probably, we don't know this for sure.
But we suspect that they use this for tracking day length.
And that's how they subconsciously know
what time of year it is and the triggers
for when they need to start thinking
about breeding season and all that sort of thing.
- [Mark] Very unique sensory mechanism.
Very cool, Peter!
- A lot of the stuff that I've described
to you is useful because what we need always is
for people to relate to these animals.
If we want to conserve an animal like this,
people need to be engaged in it, right?
And the thing about an animal like this is it's,
it responds to us in a way.
We can understand it; we can empathize.
So knowing about iguanas helps us tell stories
about them and we tell stories
about these iguanas and people start to love them.
And if people start to love them,
they want us to preserve them.
And that's, that's the way it all works.
- Well I think Peter has done a phenomenal job
today hanging out with us so we can learn more
about his species, and as far as lovability I mean.
I think the proof is right here, guys.
This is about the coolest customer I've ever witnessed
when it comes to an iguana.
Thank you very much for hanging out, Peter.
And thank you, Fred, really appreciate the tour
of the facility, great work on bringing back this population
of beautiful reptiles and if you want
to find out more about this program,
make sure to check out the link in the description below.
I'm Mark Vins.
Be brave,
stay wild,
we'll see you on the next location.
Bye, Peter, see you later buddy!
Without the efforts put in place by Fred and now sustained
by the National Trust Blue Iguana Recovery Program,
these lizards would almost certainly no longer exist
in the wild.
What they have done for the blue iguana is truly remarkable
and always makes us proud to tell one
of these heroic efforts to save such a special creature.
If you would like to catch a glimpse
of the famous blue iguana for yourself,
drop by the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Gardens website
to book a tour with the Blue Iguana Recovery Program
where you can get up close with this endemic species,
and if you're lucky enough, may even get
to meet Peter himself.
But just don't disturb him if he's resting.
The star of the island needs his beauty sleep.
(bright music fades out)
Want to be part of the crew?
In case you haven't heard, we have a new club.
Join the Brave Crew now for many exclusive adventure videos,
photos, and discounts only available to members
by clicking join on the channel homepage
or by visiting the link in the description below.
If you thought the blue iguana was unique,
make sure to check out the time we explored the reefs
of the Grand Caymans at night and got up close
and personal with some of the most bizarre,
alien-like creatures you could ever imagine.
(bright music fades out)
(roaring, tweeting)