Roatan spiny-tailed iguana
Ctenosaura oedirhina
Where to see it
Resort gardens and ecoparks are the likeliest places, according to the IUCN action plan for the species. Arch's Iguana and Marine Park on French Cay has worked with it for years. Not every iguana at an animal park is this one, so ask.
When
All year, sunny mornings
Status
Endangered. Found nowhere else on Earth.
The island's signature animal, the one locals call the black iguana, and the one you are most likely to meet. Adults are black to dark gray, banded in cream that whitens with age, with a rounded snout and a ringed, spiny tail. It lives only on Roatan, Barbareta and a few small cays, in dry forest, mangrove, beach scrub and limestone, and the Barbareta population is the better protected.
It is listed as Endangered, with the IUCN action plan putting the mature population below 4,500. The threats are the usual island ones: hunting, which is illegal but rarely enforced, dogs and cats, roads and clearing, and interbreeding with non-native iguanas brought to the island. Leave it alone, do not buy or eat iguana, and it will keep sunning itself on the ironshore for a long time yet.