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Squamata · IguanidaeEntry 10,303 of 21,572
West Indian Iguana, Iguana delicatissima

Reptilia · Squamata

Iguana delicatissimaLaurenti, 1768

West Indian Iguana

Photograph by Sylvain Montagner, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 434 mm snout to vent.

Also called Lesser Antillean Iguana.

Reptilia › Squamata › Iguanidae › Iguana

Grows to
434mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Herbivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
20years
Body length across Iguanidae

Longer than 65% of all iguanas anyone has measured.

65% of 43 species are smaller35% larger
129 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest750 mm

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

44 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
2018
Population trend
Decreasing
Red List criteria
A3ce

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
20years

Carey and Judge 2000, Slavens and Slavens 1999: 4.4 (captivity, see also Henderson & Powell 2009); 20 (Henderson & Powell 2009)

Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
37.95°C100 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
36.5–39.4°C98–103 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
434mm17 in

max 434 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
353mm14 in
Largest female · snout to vent
353mm14 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
75mm3 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
75mm3 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
3472.3g7.7 lb

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

Body mass at hatchingmeasured
17.5g0.62 oz

How it lives

Diet
Herbivorous

(almost exclusively, all ages, Powell et al. 2005, also eat other stuff like eggs and carrion, youngs also eat insects and "other small animals", see also van Wagensveld and Kluskens 2017) / Omnivorous (Bird eggs, fruit and carrion, Lazell 1973)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

Banfi et al. 2023

Active
Diurnal
Where it lives
Arboreal, terrestrial

Terrestrial and Arboreal / essentially arboreal (Henderson and Powell 2009)

Habitat
Forest, Grassland, Shrubland
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Highest it lives · above sea level
400m
Range size
4510km²
Density
0.35–184per hectare
Home range · largest recorded
2000m2

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
17eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
4–30eggs

12-30 (van Wagensveld and Kluskens 2017)

Clutches in a year
1.5per year
Clutches a year
1–2per year
First breeds at
36months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Laurenti
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1768
Type locality
Indiis

Keeping one

West Indian Iguana 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.

5 ft 8 in × 5 ft 8 in × 5 ft 8 in(174 × 174 × 174 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.

Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.

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 17 in (434 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 100 °F (38 °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.

275kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 3,472 g, the heaviest recorded for West Indian Iguana — 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 the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • — Mean clutch · largest reported
  • — 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 in
  • — Lowest it lives · above sea level

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). Iguana delicatissima. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/iguana-delicatissima

@misc{iguana_delicatissima_2026,
  title  = {Iguana delicatissima},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/iguana-delicatissima}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.