Safeguarding the jewel of Guatemalan dry forest: two decades of research and conservation efforts of the Guatemalan Beaded Lizard and its habitat
Ariano-Sánchez, Daniel
Centro de Estudios Ambientales y Biodiversidad
Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Heloderma Natural Reserve
Zacapa, Guatemala
The Guatemalan Beaded lizard (Heloderma charlesbogerti) is one of the most endangered and elusive lizards in the world. This species is classified as Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Its main threats are habitat destruction, aversive hunting, poaching for the illegal pet-market trade, and climate change. It is endemic to the seasonally dry tropical forests of the valleys of eastern Guatemala and is part of the venom-producing clade of non-avian reptiles. This species was described in 1988 but formal research and conservation efforts on this species did not began until 2003, showing that this species was on the brink of extinction. Research and conservation efforts had been done since then, focusing on habitat conservation and restoration, public awareness programs, community-based conservation, along with the development of conservation policies at the national and international level. These efforts had been leaded by Heloderma Natural Reserve which has developed innovative science-based conservation measures that two decades later had proven to be successful at recovering this species from the brink of extinction. A review of twenty years of field research and conservation efforts is presented.