Shedd researcher helped in rescue of critically endangered rock iguanas - Chicago Sun-Times
The newest residents of the Shedd Aquarium aren’t young and pretty, don’t have names and don’t even live in the water, but they are critically endangered and were rescued from smugglers by one of the lakefront museum’s researchers. The male and female Exuma Island rock iguanas, more than 20 years old, had been smuggled out of their native Bahamas and sold for profit to an illegal pet dealer in Florida in 1994, a statement from the Shedd said. Chuck Knapp, Shedd’s vice president of conservation and research, had spent 20 years researching the endangered reptiles, and “genetic data collected for his research efforts was used at trial in the legal case against the smugglers, who were... Since 1994, Knapp has “worked with the Bahamian government and Bahamian National Trust to conduct research that has helped with regulation, training and outreach, and citizen-science data collection and field programs to save them, according to... The iguanas, the largest native herbivores on the islands, “play a vital ecological role by regulating plant communities in the dry forests and scrub habitats that they inhabit” and their steep decline “threatens these communities and other... Source: chicago.suntimes.com
