Principal source:
Compiler: IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group
Updates with support from the Overseas Territories Environmental Programme (OTEP) project XOT603, a joint project with the Cayman Islands Government - Department of Environment
Review:
Publication date: 2010-06-15
Recommended citation: Global Invasive Species Database (2024) Species profile: Iguana iguana. Downloaded from http://www.iucngisd.org/gisd/speciesname/Iguana+iguana on 08-12-2024.
While there are reports of juvenile green iguana being predated on by the Florida burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia floridana a species of 'Special Concern'); there are concerns that adult green iguana may venture into burrows of the owl and forage on eggs and hatchlings (McKie et al. 2005). In their native range green iguana are known to be herbivorous through their lifespan, however, juveniles have been reported to maybe, be omnivorous (Savage 2002). Analysis of stomach contents of 18 green iguanas by Townsend et al. (2005) as part of an ongoing study on the exotic herpetofauna and its management in Florida, discovered the remains of an arboreal snail Drymaeus multilineatus in two specimens, one with accompanying plant material (suggesting that they could have been ingested accidentally with plant material on which the snails were aestivating) and the other without (suggesting that they could have ingested the snails intentionally). The authors of this study point out that while D. multilineatus is widespread and in no immediate danger, increased numbers of green iguana could potentially impact on tree snails with restricted distributions, whose native range overlap with that of the green iguana.
Green iguana are reported to be posing a collision hazard on airport runways in Puerto Rico (Engeman et al. 2005).
The keeping of reptiles as pets has been cited as the source of a number of laboratory-confirmed cases of human salmonellosis associated with exposure to exotic pets including iguanas (Woodward et al. 1997).