ZSL London Zoo Marine Iguanas in the 1930s

Tim May said:
Four marine iguanas were received at the end of 1932; I don’t know exactly how long they lived but I doubt it was long.

The species is mentioned in the 1933 guide; according to the 1934 guide there is only a single specimen in the Reptile House; the 1935 guide doesn’t mention marine iguana at all. (If such an unusual species were still in the collection, it would probably feature in the guide so I assume that none were there when this guide was published.)

I don’t know off-hand about the flightless cormorant; I would need to do some further checking.
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Thanks, Tim. It sounds like the iguanas didn't do very well in captivity in London, as with the rest of the world's zoos. No worries on the cormorant.
 
Tim May said:
It has taken me a while to follow up on my earlier post, but more information about the Belle Vue marine iguanas:-

Three specimens arrived at Belle Vue, Manchester, on 25th June 1964. Sadly, none of the trio lived long; the last died on 6th September.
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Further to my earlier post concerning the marine iguanas at Belle Vue (Manchester):-

I spent a while in the ZSL Library today and, whilst there, looked through the Belle Vue species ledger.

This contained slightly different information concerning the Belle Vue iguanas to that I’ve seen published elsewhere and, hence, slightly different to that provided in my earlier post.

As per my earlier post, this ledger confirms that a trio of marine iguanas arrived at Belle Vue on 25th June 1964. However, according to this source, all three of these were dead by 6th August 1964.

A fourth specimen was subsequently acquired on 29th July 1964 and it was this individual that died on 6th September 1964. So the longevity record of these iguanas in Manchester was even worse than my original post implied.
 
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zooman64 said:
I believe I'm right in saying (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that currently the giant tortoises are the only representatives of Galapagos fauna to be found in captivity.
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I'm still quite sure there are some Galapagos doves in privat hand in Europe.
 
zooman64 said:
.......in 1964 a single Marine Iguana was obtained by Jersey Zoo. .......It is tempting to speculate that it was probably obtained from the same dealer/importation as the Belle Vue specimens.
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Agreed; that seems highly probable.

According to the Belle Vue Ledger, the three marine iguanas received on 25th June 1964 came from Ravensden and the one obtained on 29th July 1964 came from “Marine Land”.

Do you know the source of the Jersey specimen?
 
I'm new here but I know this from personal experience, the San Diego zoo received 2 adult marine iguanas in the early 60's from a friend. He got them while visiting the islands as a merchant marine in late 1957 and kept them alive feeding them Ulva and other tide pool algae species (he lived outside La Jolla back then) for 3+ years before someone realized what they were and he had to give them up. The saddest part of the whole thing is at the time he took them no one cared, when he got them here no one cared, when SD Zoo took them they didn't live 5 months, no one bothered to ask him how he cared for them!

By the way, I skimmed through the posts so if this has already been mentioned please excuse my repeating it but very few marine iguanas feed in the water, they usually feed in shallow tide pools or at low tide on exposed algae, or in the intertidal zone where they are not underwater, only very large individuals feed under water and even then only rarely when compared to the total volume of feeding time during a month. Look up research, not just internet searches as it is far more interesting to exploit this rare behavior then say they eat algae at the waters edge!
 
Ah the internet eh?...As Philter4 says best not to entirely rely on it it...for instance the above quoted Int Zoo Yearbook reference is for vol.6 and is 1966 not 2007.Ray Pawley,with whom I am still in contact,made a further brief reference to Marine Iguanas in mixed exhibits in volume 11.To be honest,if sufficient food can be obtained they don't seem to be too hard to maintain,tho no-one will probably ever try again,after all its a bigger crime to commit treason in her majesty`s shipyards(punishable by death to this day I believe,unless its urban myth) than to remove something from the wild for purposes other than for conservation.
 
Just checked and the death sentence was repealed for treason in 1998..you`d still it get for keeping a wild-caught animal if some had their way however!
 
Tim Brown said:
Ah the internet eh?...As Philter4 says best not to entirely rely on it it...for instance the above quoted Int Zoo Yearbook reference is for vol.6 and is 1966 not 2007.Ray Pawley,with whom I am still in contact,made a further brief reference to Marine Iguanas in mixed exhibits in volume 11.To be honest,if sufficient food can be obtained they don't seem to be too hard to maintain,tho no-one will probably ever try again,after all its a bigger crime to commit treason in her majesty`s shipyards(punishable by death to this day I believe,unless its urban myth) than to remove something from the wild for purposes other than for conservation.
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Actually, it says first published online in 2007, and it's from the January 1969 (not 1966) Yearbook, although the article has an internal reference to an earlier article on the same subject from 1966, also by Pawley.
 
Gomphothere said:
Actually, it says first published online in 2007, and it's from the January 1969 (not 1966) Yearbook, although the article has an internal reference to an earlier article on the same subject from 1966, also by Pawley.
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Perhaps we should clear this one up..the first article is in vol 6(1966)..there is then a much longer paper in volume 9(1969) at which point with reference to the previous year(1968) two of the iguanas were still alive having been received by the zoo in June 1965.In vol 11(1971) further reference is made to the species in mixed exhibits without indicating whether the lizards were still alive in 1970 or not.I will get in touch with Ray to see if he can tell us the death date of the last one.
 
Okay,contact made with Ray Pawley..the record longevity at Brookfield Zoo for a Marine Iguana was an admirable 6 years,5 months and 18 days - this was at a time when iguanids in general did not live very long under captive conditions( "Some notable longevity records for captive iguanas" Carey, Int. Zoo Yearbook Vol. 13).The main problem was not dietary,but the dominance structure between the individual lizards which would lead to death unless provision was made to let individuals get away from one another.Ray also states that,at the time,at least one German zoo imported specimens(highly likely Frankfurt or West Berlin).
 
If anyone on this thread might be interested, I have a zoo design thread over in the Fantasy Zoo forum and just posted a design for a Galápagos exhibit complex, including marine iguanas, of course.
 
Batto said:
Yeah, that's pretty old news ;). He's currently built enclosures for his Galapagos land iguanas in Uganda. And he's breeding Fijian crested iguanas and Naultinus geckos, too.
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How and from where did he get hold of these Galapagos marine and land iguanas?
 
Norwegian moose said:
How and from where did he get hold of these Galapagos marine and land iguanas?
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They are completely protected in their native range and exports are only possible via illegal smuggling. Those were destined for Uganda. The ones in the facebook post are kept in Uganda. I'm sure you can connect the dots.
Both species are CITES listed and CITES export papers are not issued for them as none have left the Galapagos legally. In other words: even if you got them to Uganda, it would still be illegal to export them elsewhere (almost all countries are members of CITES).

...wonder how he got the Fijian crested iguanas and Naultinus geckos...
 
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