More than $3.5 million spent on Green Iguana cull

The Department of Environment said it has spent more than $3.5 million on the Green Iguana cull project since it started last October. As of 21 July 821,689 green iguanas had been culled.

Those at the DOE said while those numbers are good, the battle must continue and have applied for more government funding to keep the initiative going. They did not share how much funds they are requested.

DOE Terrestrial Resources Unit Manager, Fred Burton, said everyone in the community can see the difference since the cull started.

Mr. Burton urges people to be cautious and not get complacent.

He hoped the programme to continue past December.

“The thing is if we stop at the end of this year, then in a couple of years from now, we’ll be right back to where we started. When the population is still this large the power for them to reproduce and bounce back to where it was is really impressive,” he said.

Local iguana culler, Cline Glidden the third, said he’s aiming to change that but there’s a challenge in culling the invasive species.

“They never stop populating, so if we stop they are just going to come back,” Mr. Glidden said.

Mr. Glidden said initiatives like the cull are needed.

“Continue the cull maybe not on such a large scale, but we definitely need to continue the cull or else the numbers will come back,” Mr. Glidden said.

Mr. Burton said over the last couple of weeks there’s been a lull in the numbers, due in part to the breeding season and the rainy weather. But he said that will change.

“We are expecting a lot of hatch-lings, what I’m hoping is that they are going to be culled in large numbers,” Mr. Burton said.