Isla Iguana Wildlife Refuge, Panama
In the morning, we had the opportunity to visit one of Panama’s smallest but most interesting Wildlife Refuges, Isla Iguana. Located on the eastern coast of the southernmost peninsula of Azuero, one of the most deforested regions in the country, it has become a haven for colonies of coastal animals such as the Magnificent Frigate Bird. The Frigates are a small group of spectacular seabirds found in tropical oceans but generally not far from land. While enjoying the white sandy beach of Isla Iguana, we noticed how some were soaring low over our heads with no apparent movement of their wings, just swooping over the surface of the ocean or on the sand, capturing small twigs or nesting building material since there nest are usually placed in bushes and trees behind the island.
Unfortunately for this small island and the few of its inhabitants, according to Dr. E. G. Leigh from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, studies that have compared different-sized land masses suggests that productivity is lower on islands whose area is too small to maintain some of the interdependences that maintain diversity, productivity and competitiveness in mainland ecosystems. Islands lacking the rare, metabolically active dominants that make competition so intense in mainland ecosystems are more easily invaded by introduced exotics. This will surely shape the fragile ecosystem of Isla Iguana in the future.
On the other hand, Isla Iguana surrounding waters possesses a great biodiversity on its coral reefs. Coral has an elementary function in the coastal zone of Isla Iguana, acting as a giant underwater nursery, housing a great amount of small coral fishes together with large commercial species. This gave us the opportunity to snorkel around species such as yellow fin surgeon fish, king angel fish, guineafowl puffers, blunt head trigger fish, bicolored parrot fish, and even a couple of hawksbill turtles. There are up to 75 species of hard and soft coral around these waters, which give an intrinsic value to the marine area of this small wildlife refuge.
After spending all morning enjoying every single aspect of this tiny island, we raised anchor and started cruising to our next destination, Coiba Island. Virgin, unpopulated, intact, Coiba is the largest island in the Central American region. Therefore, the ecological interactions that we would observe here will surely contrast with what we saw at Isla Iguana. While cruising throughout the afternoon, we enjoy lectures from the naturalist staff and photo expert while the sun was setting behind the horizon.
