Love Thy Neighbor: Predation of a Utila Spiny-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura bakeri) by a Common Spiny-tailed Iguana (C. similis) on Utila Island, Honduras

The Utila Spiny-tail Iguana (Ctenosaura bakeri) is a Critically Endangered species endemic to Mangrove habitats on Utila Island, Honduras. It has long been assumed that its specialist nature, could be in part driven by past competitive interactions with a more widespread aggressive congener, the Common Spiny-tailed Iguana (C. similis). Despite anecdotal evidence, direct interactions between these two species have remained little documented in the literature. Here we present the first record of C. similis predating on C. bakeri. In coastal habitats where both species distributions overlap, adult C. similis could be frequent predators of juvenile or hatchling C. bakeri.