Taking in the scenery . Acklins Bight iguana basking in the sunlight, ever alert to the presence of an intruding iguana. William K. Hayes . The marine iguana is unique not only in being the only lizard that actually enters the ocean to feed on algae, it is also the only reptile known to exhibit a lek mating system. Like sage grouse and prairie chickens that gather each spring to display in a localized area, male iguanas similarly cluster each year to strut their stuff in front of the much smaller, less colorful females.
Female iguanas visit the lek to choose which male they wish to mate.
Large, territorial males acquire most of the matings. However, some of the smaller males use an alternative tactic by quickly mounting a female before being chased away by the territorial male. We began a study of marine iguanas on Caamano Cay in January 1997. We then captured and similarly processed females when they moved inland to nest in the sandy interior of the island. By using DNA fingerprinting of the field-collected blood samples, we intend to identity of the parents of the hatchling iguanas.