This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 4:30 am and is filed under La Palma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
La Palma, Canary Islands - Large lizards still alive
The giant La Palma lizard Gallotia auaritae was thought to have died out long ago, but now José Antonio Mateo, from the species recovery centre on the Canary Island of La Gomera has discovered that the species still at large on the island of La Palma.
A quarter of a century ago it was thought that the only giant lizards to survive were on Gran Canaria, but since then small colonies of the reptile have been found on Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro.
The reptile found on La Palma, is thought to be between 301 and 312 mm long and about four years old. Experts think that the lizard is looking for a new home on the island and that a new search should be conducted immediately to ensure the future protection of the species.