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The largest zoo in Georgia is working onerous to assist preserve one of many world’s rarest lizard species.
Zoo Atlanta despatched 11 endangered Guatemalan beaded lizards (Heloderma charlesbogerti) to La Aurora Zoo in Guatemala City on Jan. 10. The lizards hatched at the zoo and can be a part of a breeding colony within the species’ native area.
“The lizards, three males and eight females, will be part of a breeding colony to bolster the wild population of the species, which is estimated to number only 500 to 600 individuals in its native Motagua Valley,” officers at Zoo Atlanta defined in a press launch.
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Specialists at Guatemala City’s Universidad del Valle and La Aurora Zoo can have the lizards, that are venomous, proceed the breeding program and ultimately their offspring will probably be launched into the wild.
Zoo Atlanta lately despatched 11 endangered Guatemalan beaded lizards (Heloderma charlesbogerti) to La Aurora Zoo. (Zoo Atlanta v)
“The lizards that went down won’t be launched into the wild themselves, nevertheless,” Zoo Atlanta’s Curator of Herpetology Robert L. Hill defined on Wednesday.
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“The plan is that these animals would reproduce in their beaded lizard-specific facilities, and that following a quarantine period, the offspring would then be transferred from La Aurora Zoo to protected areas within the known wild range of the species in the dry forests of the Motagua Valley.”
Hill added Zoo Atlanta is “immensely grateful” for all the assistance that it obtained from U.S. and Guatemalan wildlife specialists.
The Guatemalan beaded lizard’s inhabitants is threatened due to habitat loss (from agricultural improvement), fear-based killings by people (for the reason that lizards are venomous) and unlawful assortment for worldwide pet commerce. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP by way of Getty Images)
The Guatemalan beaded lizard lives beneath floor and eats chicken and reptile eggs “almost exclusively,” in accordance to Zoo Atlanta.
Its inhabitants is threatened due to habitat loss, fear-based killings by people and unlawful assortment for worldwide pet commerce. The examine and conservation of the lizards, as effectively as Zoo Atlanta’s contributions, date again greater than 25 years.
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Juan Alvarado, 68, of the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), releases a Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti, an endemic lizard at risk of extinction, at the “Niño Dormido” Municipal Regional Park, in Cabanas, Guatemala, on July 11, 2022. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP by way of Getty Images)
A Zoo Atlanta spokesperson instructed Fox News Digital that the lizards won’t be on show in Guatemala. Their family members, nevertheless, might be seen at Zoo Atlanta.
“The 11 lizards who were just transferred down to Guatemala will be living in a behind-the-scenes specialized facility, so they will not be visible to zoo guests at that zoo,” the spokesperson defined.
The lizards’ family members, nevertheless, might be seen at Zoo Atlanta.
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A Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti, an endemic lizard at risk of extinction, is seen at the “Niño Dormido” Municipal Regional Park, in Cabanas, Guatemala, on July 11, 2022. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP by way of Getty Images)
Hill stated, “So, the next time you visit [Zoo Atlanta’s] Scaly Slimy Spectacular, stop by the Guatemalan beaded lizard habitat and think about how the family members of those animals are contributing to the next generation of Guatemalan beaded lizards, not just here, but in Guatemala.”
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