Reptilia · Squamata
Brachylophus vitiensisGibbons, 1981
Fiji Crested lguana
Photograph by lazarus, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 255 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Iguanidae › Brachylophus
- Grows to
- 255mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 14years
Longer than only 35% of all iguanas anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 129 to 750 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
43 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Critically Endangered
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2012
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- Red List criteria
- A2abce
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 14years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 32°C90 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 32°C
at least 14 (Reidpath), Slavens and Slavens 1999: 9 and 1 month
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 255mm10 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 204.5mm8 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 204.5mm8 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 77.5mm3 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 77.5mm3 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 714.9g1.6 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 14.9g0.53 oz
Shai Meiri, unpublished
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1–500m
- Range size
- 1563km²
- Density
- 1.43–142.9per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 64.36m2
e.g., Morrison et al. 2008
IUCN (1 to 500)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 4eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–6eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 3per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–3per year
- First breeds at
- 30months
Reidpath 2006; 3-5 (Morrison et al. 2008)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Gibbons
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1981
- Type locality
- Fiji
Keeping one
Fiji Crested lguana is assessed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.
3 ft 4 in × 2 ft 1 in × 3 ft 4 in(102 × 64 × 102 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 10 in (255 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 90 °F (32 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.
The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.
68kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 715 g, the heaviest recorded for Fiji Crested lguana — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Iguanidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Brachylophus vitiensis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/brachylophus-vitiensis
@misc{brachylophus_vitiensis_2026,
title = {Brachylophus vitiensis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/brachylophus-vitiensis}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.