Once declared extinct, rare Jamaican iguana nears 1,000th release after 30 years of conservation work

A reptile that was once declared extinct is finally approaching a conservation milestone in Jamaica. The country's critically endangered Jamaican rock iguana, which was rediscovered in 1990 after fewer than 50 individuals were found in the wild, is set to reach its 1,000th head-started release on November 14.

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), which coordinates the recovery programme with local and international partners, will return the iguanas to their natural habitat in the Hellshire Hills, St Catherine, after decades of captive rearing, habitat protection and predator control.According to the Jamaica Observer, 973 head-started iguanas have already been released into the wild, with another 114 scheduled for Saturday's exercise. The milestone marks more than three decades of conservation work for a species that had disappeared from much of its former range.