Galápagos Island Reintroduces Extinct Iguanas

Good work. Just do it right to prevent unintended consequences. We should be protecting the biodiversity of the planet as every animal or plant species has come about to preserve the balance of nature as we now know it, contributing to the health of the planet - often in ways that are difficult to understand.

It seems that whenever mankind exploits the nature of things for their benefit, the balance that nature has brought over millenia is destroyed and ultimately puts mankind at peril from it's own greed and hubris.

The work is not yet complete as they need to see if the iguanas thrive, and the impact in the entire ecosystem. 

"If the iguana population continues to grow, the island will become a living experiment....to see how the return of the lizards affects the diversity of other organisms on the island. Reintroducing a native species can have many positive side effects throughout an ecosystem. It’s possible that the iguanas could help the currently endangered species onthe island flourish once more."

https://scienceworld.scholastic.com/issues/2019-20/090219/operation-iguana.html#1060L

I'm not sure what Causes means by "engineering" the Galápagos Land Iguana.  But I'm very happy that re-establishing a breeding population of this extremely threaten species on Santiago Island is great news!  2,150 specimens of these iguanas were transferred from North Seymour Island after the invasive species had been removed.  This happened more than 2 years ago--in January 2019.  The reason they are crowing about it now is that there are now a number of immature iguanas among the population on Santiago Island!  That means the transferred adults have been successfully breeding!

I will feel better about this if it succeeds and we have no so changed the environment on the island such that they cannot survive long enough to establish a stable population! 

Seems that the entire world had dinosaurs including the United States. I think Calimexico Michigan NY, NJ, Washington Oregon and Washington DC had some of the largest populations of dinosaurs. We should do a Jurassic Park thing and bring them back to life back in this country and then to help them thrive give them total protection where no one even if attacked can kill them. Since we are an evasive species to these animals we can start eliminating all humans. 

Causes with a variety of issues and causes not listed you leave me no choice but to post here! Either you are asleep or are being selective?

iguanas reincarnated are safer for this planet than fascists in the form of Drumpfkopf 

Ex-President complained to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly that American generals were not as loyal as he believed German generals were to Adolf Hitler

theft of top secret documents is real and given half a chance would happily sell them to the russians who already have intense kompromat on him

dont feel sorry for him about the raid! national security is more important than a scumbag 

gop you are so dumbed dow you have forgotten your place let alone your duty

I am putting this here because this thing's face reminds me of Donald Trump. I just read the headline the Republicans rush to Donald Trump's defense after his home is search by the FBI! Let's not even think of the fact that a federal judge has to approve a search and will only do so when they believe a crime has been committed, but that's neither here nor there for a Republican because they could care less the Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government of this country and lead a riot to attack the capital. That is not the only list of his crimes why he was in office that's the tip of the iceberg. The real reason Republicans are rushing to his defense is because they are all implicated, they supported him after the riot almost every Republican in Congress did and it's pathetic. The Republican party has become the anti-American party the fantasy land party the fascist party. And that's just the way it is.

I'm not really opposed to this morally, but we should be careful. We don't know the effect that reintroducing these species could have on the ecosystem, or on us.

I hope there are ethical and scientific guidelines for these actions that the world can agree on.

CAUSES ASKS "How do you feel about engineering extinct species?"  ME: Despite the dubiously worded question and lack of adequate information (What is meant by "engineering"? Since the iguana existed elsewhere it can not be "extinct" by definition), in this particular instance it seems like a good thing.  Of particular importance was the need to rid the island of invasive species.  Invasive species -- from predator fish and mollusks (think zebra mussels in the Great Lakes), to plants, to reptiles (think boa constrictor in Florida), to mammals (there's lots of invasive species information on-line) -- cause immense ecological harm and enormous economic damage, from attempts to get rid of them to the loss of profitable economies that depend on native species. 

I'm with Jeff goldblum.   We know we can but should we?   They went extinct for a reason 

It's good to make these advances, but we aren't doing enough to keep our own species alive.

Personally, I cannot wait to see a dodo.

Everything that happens in life, good, bad or indifferent, has a purpose whether or not we understand it.  Cloning a wooly mamoth is in the works, so why not a T-Rex, a sabertooth tiger, or even an ancient shark?  God or nature, if you prefer, knows more than we do about keeping the balance in all things.  "Its not nice to fool Mother Nature."  She'll get even whether you like it or not.  As another old saying goes;  "Be careful of what you ask for as you just may get it.  And most likely it will not be what you expected."  Think about it.

thats good news unfortunately people dont realize the impact they have on the eco system and how just introducing a non native plant or animal can damage the eco system premitely

What is most important is working to stop the further damage to the environment so that no more species became endangered or extinct.  We must end our reliance on fossil fuels.

Thank goodness for all the conservationist on our planet

This is great news for this popular animal 

There's an old advertisement jingle: "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature." I am a firm believer in science to a point. That point comes with efforts to "fool Mother Nature." Consequently, I will observe the reintroduction of a long list species with great interest but, with concern, as well.

My premise is simple.   Too damn many species have gone extinct.  We're not doing enough to preserve those animals/reptiles/birds/etc that are in danger of disappearing forever and we will regret it when most become extinct.  

So Congress should do everything to ensure the survival of these species.  They're worth saving...

I'm happy that we can recreate animals we put into extinction, but I'm not 100%  comfortable with the science behind it. Has nobody seen how the Jurassic Park movies turned out?

Let nature take care of her own.....

I visited this place and it is magical and unspoiled.  We need to do more for this planet we have the privilage to live on.

Many people indifferent to species recovery like this in the wild must understand that this accomplishment is noteworthy not because it clears our collective conscious of wrongdoings by generations passed, giving the younger generation their "green-feelgood-fix", but rather enables us to discover new things about the environment that we didn't even know about which to ask ourselves. Learning the affect of this species in its natural habitat allows us to learn about its environment on the whole, what makes it tick, what's holding it back, and what we can do to reinvigorate it.

This success proves the methodology is sound and enables us to repair (to an extent) every other environment around the globe. It is vitally important that great achievements like this one continue to garner public attention, understanding,  and admiration, so that we may continue to push their essentiality to our representatives and communities, and preserve our planet for future generations.