So congratulations to the keepers at London Zoo's reptile house who have just become the proud parents to nine Utila Iguanas (Ctenosaura bakeri). These critically endangered critters, a rare species of spiny tailed black iguana, are native to a small area of mangrove swamp on the Honduran island of Utila and their hatching is another successful step in a wider programme to save them from extinction.
After a ten year breeding programme, the domesticated numbers of 'swampers', as they're known, are growing and this batch will soon be exported to other zoos across the world to enable them to lay more little leathery reptile eggs. It is of course a shame that they can't survive in their own habitat but those lovely Honduran beaches where they like to lay their eggs do apparently make for a tasty tourist trade.
Swamper pic from Tom-Riddle's flickr photostream
