Another rock iguana has been killed on a Cayman Brac road, the fourth endangered reptile to have been struck and killed by a vehicle since April.
A young breeding male, who was among 89 iguanas tagged in an exercise this year to identify all the iguanas on the island, was hit by a car on Monday, 17 September.
Bonnie Scott-Edwards, liaison for the iguana survey, said she feared iguanas being killed on the newly paved roads of Cayman Brac was “getting so commonplace, it may not be newsworthy anymore”.
The latest roadkill victim was known simply as “Number 86”. Development work on the edge of the Bluff had driven him from his usual habitat to a patch at the side of the road, Ms Scott-Edwards said.
She said the project to preserve the Sister Islands white crested rock iguana had been in operation more than a year by now, but there was yet to be one roadside warning sign erected asking drivers to slow down and watch out for iguanas.
In June, a young female iguana, known as Little Girl, who had been featured as a character in a locally written children’s story was killed when she was struck by a passing vehicle. In April, a pregnant iguana was killed on South Side Road and in May, the island’s largest male iguana, known as S, was struck and killed.
A count of iguanas on the island taken earlier this year showed there were fewer than 90 of the reptiles surviving.