About

What is a lizard?

Lizards are part of a group of animals known as reptiles. They are most closely related to snakes. In fact, some lizards, called sheltopusiks, look like snakes because they have no legs! Many lizards today resemble the ancient reptiles of the dinosaur era. Their ancestors appeared on Earth over 200 million years ago

In general, lizards have a small head, short neck, and long body and tail. Unlike snakes, most lizards have moveable eyelids. There are currently over 4,675 lizard species, including iguanas, chameleons, geckos, Gila monsters, monitors, and skinks.

Threats

Around the world, many lizard species are threatened by invasive species, habitat loss, and poaching for the international exotic pet trade.

Conservation Action

At Al Ain Zoo’s state-of-the-art Kenneth C. and Anne D. Griffin Reptile Conservation Center, we have succeeded in breeding the most critically endangered iguanas in the world, the Caribbean rock iguanas. We have been involved with Caribbean iguana conservation and recovery programs for almost two decades, establishing breeding facilities for five of the most endangered species on their respective home islands. To date, more than 700 Caribbean iguanas have been raised in these facilities and reintroduced.

Al Ain Zoo has been working to conserve Fijian iguanas since 1965, when Prince Tupouto’ a-Tungi of Tonga presented six banded iguanas to the Zoo. We have learned much about Fijian iguanas and have been successful in breeding an assurance population in managed care—the most successful breeding colony outside Fiji—with more than 125 hatchlings born here since 1981. We are helping with efforts in Fiji to maintain a healthy assurance population, raising hatchlings until they are large enough to avoid predators (a process known as “headstarting”), and then releasing the juvenile iguanas into their island habitats.