Students To Be Taught How To Preserve Endemic Plants And Animals

The National Museum Jamaica (NMJ), a division of the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), has launched a programme to teach students about the preservation of Jamaica’s endemic plants and animals.

About 60 students and their teachers from three primary schools, as well as members of the downtown community, Kingston, will participate in a presentation on the preservation of iguanas on Tuesday, May 17, in the NMJ’s Lecture Hall, Tower Street, in Kingston, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

The lecture, to be presented by the Natural History Museum of Jamaica, in collaboration with the Hope Zoo in Kingston, will feature a reading from a book, titled, ‘Lizards of Liguanea’. The book will be presented to the IOJ by Bronze Musgrave winner for Literature, Blake Carnegie, at the event.

The Jamaican iguana, an endangered species, is found in areas within the Hellshire Hills in St. Catherine.

Outreach Officer and Acting Curator of the NMJ, Alexis McDavid, told JIS News that Hope Zoo will be using live iguanas to teach and interact with the students on the importance of preserving Jamaica’s endemic animals.

Ms. McDavid said that the iguana, a protected species, was once hunted for food by the Tainos, the original inhabitants of Jamaica.

“What we are trying to do is to connect what the Tainos did, to partake in the iguanas as food and how children can preserve the fauna and flora of Jamaica,” she added.

The Outreach Officer noted that iguanas face daily threats, such as “deforestation, mining operations that destroy their homes and attacks by dogs and mongoose, which hunt and kill young iguanas”.

She said that the work by the Hope Zoo Preservation Foundation and the Institute in promoting the usefulness of iguanas in the eco-system has helped to prevent a decline in the iguana population.

“Iguanas have been around for a long time, and we would like them to live on for many more hundreds of years,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms. McDavid said that groups or persons who wish to participate in tours or exhibitions by the NMJ can contact the IOJ at 876-922-0620-6