By the end of the 1940's, the Jamaican iguana was generally considered extinct.

Here you'll find the last few Jamaican iguanas and yellow snakes.

The Jamaican iguana was believed to be extinct dating to 1948.

Until the 1940s, these cays were home to a population of Jamaican Iguana.

"Preserving it is key to the Jamaican iguana's survival and to maintaining the area's biodiversity."

The Jamaican iguana is a large heavy-bodied lizard primarily green to salty blue in color with darker olive-green coloration on the shoulders.

But inbreeding necessitated by its small numbers has forced the Jamaican iguana into a genetic bottleneck, making it susceptible to dangerous mutations, parasites and disease.

Like all Cyclura species the Jamaican iguana is primarily herbivorous, consuming leaves, flowers and fruits from over 100 different plant species.

Jamaican iguana (Cyclura collei)

The endangered Jamaican iguana (Cyclura collei) is restricted to dry forests in the Hellshire Hills.

The rediscovery inspired an intensive effort to save both the Jamaican iguana and the dry tropical forest of the Hellshire Hills that is its last redoubt.

Next to the Anegada iguana, Ms. Malone found the Jamaican iguana to be the most genetically distinctive and biologically important species of the group.

The Jamaican iguana (Cyclura collei) is a large species of lizard of the genus Cyclura endemic to Jamaica.

The single direct cause for the Jamaican iguana's decline can be attributed to the introduction of the small Asian mongoose (Herpestes javanicus) as a form of snake-control.

The two most imperiled, she said, are the Anegada iguana, found only on the island for which it is named in the British Virgin Islands, and the Jamaican iguana.

Internationally recognized for its successful breeding program of Ricord's and rhinoceros iguanas, the Indianapolis Zoo was one of six zoos selected to help save the Jamaican iguana.

These cays were previously home to the Jamaican Iguana until the 1940s, when the population was thought to have become extinct, mainly due to predation by introduced small Indian mongooses and habitat alteration by feral goats.

There, Dr. Peter Vogel, a herpetologist at the University of the West Indies, and Rhema Kerr, a zoo curator, identified the lizard as a Jamaican iguana, believed extinct for nearly 50 years.

The Jamaican iguana's return from oblivion also focused international attention on the plight of all West Indian iguanas, said Dr. Allison C. Alberts, head of ecology at the San Diego Zoo.

The Jamaican iguana declined dramatically during the second half of the 19th century, after the introduction of the Indian mongoose as a form of rat and snake control, until it was believed to exist only on the Goat islands near the Hellshire hills.

While recognizing that the Jamaican iguana and several of its cousins still teeter on the brink of extinction, biologists seeking to rescue the endangered animals remain optimistic that they will succeed, in large part because of increasing public awareness in the Caribbean and abroad.