Squamata · IguanidaeEntry 10,304 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Iguana iguanaLinnaeus, 1758

Common Green Iguana

Photograph by Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

A tree-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 580 mm snout to vent.

Also called Grenadines horned iguana, Saint Lucia horned iguana, pink rhino iguana.

Reptilia › Squamata › Iguanidae › Iguana

Grows to: 580mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Herbivorous
Active: Diurnal
Lives up to: 28years

Body length across Iguanidae

Longer than 88% of all iguanas anyone has measured.

88% of 43 species are smaller12% 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

48 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: Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked: 2018

The animal itself

Limbs: Four legs
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Longest recorded life: 28years
Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured: 35.5–36.2°C96–97 °F
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild: 34.6°C94 °F
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active: 33–36.2°C91–97 °F

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded: 580mm23 in
Length snout to vent · adult female mean: 310.7mm12 in
Largest female · snout to vent: 318.4mm12.5 in
Hatchling length · snout to vent: 77.5mm3 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent: 77.5mm3 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 8220.7g18 lb
Body mass · a typical adult: 1530g3.4 lb
Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured: 484g1.1 lb
Body mass at hatchingmeasured: 15g0.53 oz

How it lives

Diet: Herbivorous
How it hunts: Sit and wait
Active: Diurnal
Where it lives: Arboreal
Habitat: Forest
Biome: Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year: 12months
Region: Neotropic
Mainland or island: Mainland
Highest it lives · above sea level: 1300m
Range size: 12,235,703km²
Density: 1.5–50per hectare
Home range · largest recorded: 14,144m2

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Sex decided by: Genes, XX/XY
Average clutch: 28.8eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 9–86eggs
Mean clutch: 17–40.6eggs
Clutches in a year: 1per year
Clutches a year: 1per year
First breeds at: 21–60months
Age at first breeding · female: 1640days

Naming and history

Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Pleurodonta
Subspecies: Iguana iguana iguana (LINNAEUS 1758) Iguana iguana insularis BREUIL, VUILLAUME, SCHIKORSKI, KRAUSS, MORTON, HAYNES, DALTRY, CORRY, GAYMES, GAYMES, BECH, JELIĆ & GRANDJEAN 2019 Iguana iguana melanoderma BREUIL, SCHIKORSKI, VUILLAUME, KRAUSS, MORTON, CORRY, BECH, JELIĆ & GRANDJEAN 2020 Iguana iguana sanctaluciae BREUIL, VUILLAUME, SCHIKORSKI, KRAUSS, MORTON, HAYNES, DALTRY, CORRY, GAYMES, GAYMES, BECH, JELIĆ & GRANDJEAN 2019
Described by: Linnaeus
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: Yes
Described in: 1758
Type locality: Indiis

Keeping one

7 ft 7 in × 4 ft 9 in × 7 ft 7 in(232 × 145 × 232 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 23 in (580 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 96–97 °F (35.5–36.2 °C).

Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. 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.

592kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 8,221 g, the heaviest recorded for Common Green 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.

Morphs

0 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 2 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.

What each pairing produces →

Albinobreeder consensus
No black pigment, leaving a yellow or cream animal with red eyes. Rare and delicate.
Colour linebreeder consensus
The blue and red animals of the trade. These are selected lines rather than single genes, so no offspring percentage applies, and much of what looks blue or red in a photograph is a juvenile or a male in breeding condition.
Worth knowing. Hatchling green iguanas are bright emerald and adults are not: they dull to olive, grey or orange-brown, and mature males go orange in season. The animal in a photograph is usually a 20 cm baby that grows into a metre and a half of lizard needing a room-sized enclosure — which is why this is among the most commonly abandoned reptiles in the trade.

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
— Eats arthropods
— Eats vertebrates
— Eats plant matter
— How the young develop
— Gestation or incubation
— Hatchling length · smallest recorded
— Hatchling length · largest recorded
— 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
— Population trend
— Red List criteria
— 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 iguana. Retrieved 2026-09-09, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/iguana-iguana

@misc{iguana_iguana_2026,
  title  = {Iguana iguana},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/iguana-iguana}
}

Sources

Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.
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.