The blue iguana has lived on the rocky shores of Grand Cayman a couple of million years, preening like a miniature turquoise dragon as it soaked in the sun. Yet it was driven to near-extinction by dogs, cats and cars, and the species numbered less than two dozen in the wild just a decade ago.
Now, though, a breeding program on the island has become a global model of success, fostering the population — now 700 — in the only locale on earth where the bright blue creatures lives in the wild.
(READ the AP story at MSNBC)
RELATED: (July, 2011) Conservationists Save Rare Blue Iguana From Extinction
Blue iguana photo by Julie Larsen-Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society