However, feral cats introduced by early settlers do roam the island and are likely the reason researchers have never seen a juvenile pink iguana in the wild.

The location is so hard to get to, it’s rarely visited by people, including scientists. There are an estimated 200 to 300 pink iguanas left in the world, and all of them live near the top of Wolf Volcano on Isla Isabela, one of the highest, most remote places in the Galapagos Islands. “We immediately knew that it needed urgent conservation action,” Gabriele Gentile, the University of Rome Tor Vergata zoologist who first described the species, told Popular Mechanics. While the four-foot-long, blush-colored lizard with powerful legs and razor-sharp claws was a stunning find in one of the world’s most well-studied places, the Galapagos pink iguana was immediately classified as critically endangered. In 2009, when scientists revealed they had discovered a new species of iguana living in the Galapagos Islands, the announcement was bittersweet. Engineers built a solar-powered GPS device especially for the iguanas, which revealed to biologists the surprising place females chose to nest: 1,700 feet deep in the volcano’s caldera.Researchers hope to begin a “head-start” program with iguana hatchlings, raising them in rearing facilities before returning them to the wild when they are full-grown.There are estimated to be 200 to 300 Galapagos pink iguanas left in the world, but their habitat is threatened by non-native feral cats as well as a very active volcano.

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