As you may or may not be aware, I wasvery concerned about what Hurricane Ivan did to Grand Cayman. Not because of the people there, well, not the general populace anyway. Grand Cayman is the home of the Blue Iguana recovery project. Basically run by a very few dedicated people, who are trying to breed and re-intorduce this very endangered animal to the areas where it's disappeared from the Caymans.

Some excerpts from the update this evening (http://www.blueiguana.ky):

Turning down the road leading into the park, the road from that point was littered with debris and just passable, however, as the road turns into the park’s final entryway, they were forced to stop due to fallen trees that completely covered any sign of the road. Leaving the truck, they began to hike in, climbing over fallen trees turning the normal 15-minute walk from the park’s gate into a frantic 45-minute struggle to reach the facility.

The old cages to the right were still standing and in front of them, the new cages were still tightly packed together in the same location they were moved into prior to the hurricane. They split up to check the status of the iguanas in each area. Quickly moving around the bundled new cages, the 2 year olds all appeared to be fine but hungry.

water level in the pens was still high and initially feared that the animals had drowned, but the sinking feeling was quickly relieved with the sight of “Billy’ clinging to the main trunk of a palm with his tail in the water. Looking around the other pens, some of the other adult iguanas could be seen high in the tall shrubs and old “Hal” was perched atop a large rock. As (name) approached “Carley’s" pen, she sighted Fred and immediately dove underwater and made her way to her completely submerged retreat. The status of the animals and hatchlings in the older cages was also good news; all were OK.

The status of the free-ranging iguanas near the facility: “Biter”, “Slugger”, “Red-White”, “Yellow”, “Forest” and others is not known at this time.
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Here's hoping the free-ranging iguanas came through OK, as well.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

Aw, I hope they are ok. I like Iguanas. When I managed a bar I used to let one of the customers bring his litle guy in with him on his shoulder. He like the attention he was given. Pretty sure it was a girl magnet for the guy too!!!

Wow! I realize there must be quite a few iguana's, but couldn't they have put them in a pet shelter or something like that? Or, why didn't the few workers each take some with them? My heart just aches for the animals that have to be left behind in the face of an evacuation due to a natural disaster. I understand the need to cage these animals, but I get real sad when I think of them "in the moment" that the hurricane hit the facility and they can't get out of the cages and they try and try to futility. I'm one of those people that puts myself in the situation and feels the fear for the animals.

Such a sad story gekkogecko. I'm glad that, for the most part, all is well...considering the situation.

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

Um, this *is* a shelter, but these are wild animals, usually being cared for by specifically-dedicated people-IOW, people who know what the animals will need on a day to day basis. Most shelters otherwise would be staffed by people who wouldn't have a clue.



The workers didn't go anywhere. This is Grand Cayman, and the entire island was hard-hit. Nowhere to go.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

gekkogecko,

I did note your reference to the Blue Iguana recovery project in your earlier post, but I didn’t know what it meant. I’m pleased to learn that this conservation project has come through intact. Gerald Durrell’s Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust is also quite active in the reintroduction field.

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Eudaimonia

didn't even know there was a site on the islands..but I should have known, great people are doing their thing everywhere.i'm glad to read that things seem to have come out ok

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Xs and Os,
Kristin

OK...well, "UM"...don't act like I'm an idiot! I've only ever been to the Fl. Keys (only place I've ever been, off of a "mainland"), and they have shelters to take your pets to and shelters to get yourself to (other than your everyday dwelling). With the small amount of time I had to read this thread this morning (and not link up to whole story) and ask my "uninformed" questions...I just thought you could see/understand my concern and not be annoyed by my lack of knowledge!

SCUSE ME...for not knowing the Grand Cayman as well as you! But do tell...don't they have boats to and from Grand Cayman? I'd say "nowhere to go" could be "somewhere other than here" if they had just one stinkin boat! Just a thought...............

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

We'll keep our fingers crossed for all our iguana friends. Hope you find they all came out of this okay.

But...asking uninformed questions is far better than stubbornly remaining uninformed by not asking questions. I didn't see anything wrong with asking.

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

So women like cold blooded creatures with long tongues?

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Half of a set :halo: