Captive breeding and re-introduction of the Monuriki Island Crested Iguana in Fiji

Summary

By the early 2000s fewer than 100 Fijian crested iguanas (Brachylophus vitiensis) remained on Monuriki Island, a small, uninhabited islet whose forest had been stripped of ground vegetation and tree seedlings by decades of goat grazing. In 2010, the island's land-owning clan, the National Trust of Fiji Islands and Kula Eco Park agreed to remove the goats and take the remaining iguanas into captivity until the habitat recovered. Between April 2010 and February 2012, 21 iguanas were captured across nine field trips and moved to quarantine and breeding facilities at Kula Eco Park, where they were paired for three to four months each breeding season; 18 went on to breed, building a captive population of 17 wild-caught adults, 50 captive-bred offspring and 22 fertile eggs. Goats, and later Pacific rats (introduced because of the island's importance for nesting seabirds), were eradicated from Monuriki in late 2011. After four wet seasons, the island's vegetation had recovered enough to support a release: in May 2015, 32 captive-bred iguanas fitted with PIT tags were reintroduced across four sites on Monuriki. The project also aimed to replace the clan's lost income from goat grazing with ranger-led "iguana encounter" tourism, since Monuriki is a short trip from both a popular tourist region and Nadi, one of Fiji's major cities.