Scientists Fear Super El Niño and a ‘Strange Uptick’ in Trafficking Could Decimate Galápagos Iguana Populations

It started this May when Ecuadorian officials recovered four illicitly held Galápagos iguanas from a home near Guayaquil, the South American nation’s largest city. Before the month was through, Ecuadorian police would intercept over a dozen more protected Galápagos marine iguanas from the port city’s Joaquin de Olmedo Airport—stashed away by Thai smugglers in handbags and wrapped in nylon stockings, their little lizard limbs tied down.

Then another 32 specimens were discovered in the suitcase of a Russian national this…