Common Land Iguana

• biologíaOn some islands it lives alongside the marine iguana and occasionally hybridises with it, producing sterile hybrids intermediate between the two.
• It eats prickly pears, spines and all: it knocks them down, tears them off and swallows them with barely any preparation, and on the islands where it is abundant the prickly pears have developed tall, woody trunks to put their pads out of reach, an evolutionary race visible to the naked eye.
• In 2019 it was reintroduced to Santiago Island, from which it had been absent since Darwin's visit in 1835: more than one thousand four hundred individuals were released after pigs and goats had been eradicated from the island.
• It has a cleaning relationship with Darwin's finches: the iguana stands up and stretches out its legs, and the finches pick the ticks from the folds of its skin.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat and environment

Arid areas with prickly pears on several islands of the Galápagos archipelago

Sexual maturity

8 years

Gestation / incubation

110 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

12 eggs

Sources consulted: https://www.iucnredlist.org/ | https://animaldiversity.org/ | https://es.wikipedia.org/

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.