Galapagos land iguana returns to Santiago Island after 200-year absence

 Noel Kirkpatrick 

 Photo: Samuel Meylan/Wikimedia Commons

Welcome back, iguanas!

A group of more than 1,400 land iguanas (Conolophus subcristatus) were reintroduced to Santiago Island as part of an ecological restoration project at the National Galapagos Park in Ecuador, the park announced on Jan. 7. The iguanas came from North Seymour Island, another of the 18 islands that make up the Galapagos archipelago.

British naturalist Charles Darwin was the last person to officially see a land iguana on Santiago Island in 1835. Not long after, invasive predators like the feral pig wiped out the lizards…