绿鬣蜥在大开曼群岛上泛滥成灾

From tax shelters to tree chicken
从避税者的天堂到绿鬣蜥的天下

Grand Cayman is overrun with green iguanas
绿鬣蜥在大开曼群岛上泛滥成灾

The government wants to bring back the blue variety
当局希望恢复蓝鬣蜥物种

THE CAYMAN ISLANDS, a British territory, does not tax companies. So Grand Cayman, its largest part, has more companies (106,000) than people (61,000). Its population of green iguanas greatly outnumbers both. There are perhaps 1.3m of them, more than 6,000 per square kilometre. The lizards, which can be up to 1.5 metres (five feet) long, are a nuisance. They defecate on cars, chomp up crops and gardens, eat the eggs of wild birds and short-circuit electricity transformers. The burrows in which they lay eggs damage roads and golf courses.
英属开曼群岛不对企业征税。因此，面积最大的大开曼岛拥有的公司数量（106000）要远远高于其人口数量（61000），而岛上的绿鬣蜥数量却超过了两者，总数量大概有130万只，每平方公里6000多只。体长可达到1.5米（5英尺）的绿鬣蜥让人大伤脑筋。它们在车上随意排便，啃咬庄稼和花木，享用野鸟蛋和造成变压器短路。它们下蛋的坑洞致使道路和高尔夫球场受损。

The pests arrived on the island about 25 years ago as pets. In their native habitats in South and Central America, snakes and birds of prey feast on iguana eggs and babies. In Grand Cayman they face few threats besides cars; iguana roadkill is a frequent sight. So the Cayman Islands’ environment department has intervened. On October 29th it began a cull of green iguanas, paying $6 per dead lizard to a few hundred people who have registered as bounty hunters. Each is expected to kill hundreds a month (humanely, the government insists). By mid-November they had dispatched more than 100,000. Although the rate of culling will decline as beasts become harder to find, the green-iguana population is likely to fall significantly.
大约25年前，这些害虫作为宠物来到了这个岛上。在南美和中美洲的原栖息地，蛇和猛禽尽情享用鬣蜥蛋和鬣蜥幼崽。在大开曼岛，鬣蜥很少会受到汽车以外的威胁；鬣蜥在路上被轧死是一种屡见不鲜的现象。所以开曼群岛环保部门已经介入。10月29日，开曼群岛环保部门开始下令捕杀绿鬣蜥，向数百名登记的赏金猎人提供每杀死一只蜥蜴支付6美元的报酬。每名猎人每月预计会很“人性地”（政府坚称的）杀死数百只蜥蜴。到11月中旬，开曼群岛环保部门已经部署了10万余人。尽管捕杀数量会随着这些野兽越来越难找到而下降，但绿鬣蜥的总数量可能会显著下降。

At the same time the government is trying to bring back native blue iguanas, which were nearly wiped out by loss of habitat and by predators such as rats and cats. (Adult green iguanas defend themselves from these with spines, claws and whip-like tails.) Female blues lay from one to 20 eggs a year, compared with up to 70 for greens. By 2004 a dozen or so blue iguanas were left. A breeding programme increased their numbers and has released 1,000 into nature reserves with few predators.
与此同时，当局正试图恢复土生土长的蓝鬣蜥，这些蓝鬣蜥由于栖息地的丧失和鼠猫等掠食动物而几乎被消灭得一干二净。（成年绿鬣蜥用脊椎、爪子和鞭状的尾巴抵御敌人。）雌性蓝鬣蜥每年产1至22枚卵，而绿鬣蜥每年产70枚卵。到2004年，岛上剩下了十几只蓝鬣蜥。一项育种计划提升了蓝鬣蜥数量，并将1000只蓝鬣蜥放入只有很少掠食动物的自然保护区。

The unloved green sort could bring the island extra cash. “Tree chicken” is a delicacy in some of the iguanas’ native countries. Spinion, a local firm, already exports lionfish, another invasive species. Now it plans to sell iguana meat to North America. Grand Cayman, known mainly as a tax haven, could become a leading supplier of tree chicken.
不受欢迎的绿鬣蜥给岛上带来了额外的现金收获。绿鬣蜥在一些有鬣蜥生活的国家是一种美味佳肴。当地公司Spimon已在出口另一种入侵物种狮子鱼。现在，该公司计划向北美出售鬣蜥肉。以避税天堂而著称的大开曼岛有可能成为一个主要绿鬣蜥供应商。

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