An appeal has been made for hunters across Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to refrain from over hunting the animals for which the hunting season is currently open.

This appeal was made by Director of Forestry, Fitzgerald Providence as the shortened hunting season for mammals, reptiles and birds opened on October 1st and ends on December 31st.

Providence said hunters should not be catching Iguanas that are smaller than thirteen inches in length.

"We want to emphasize those call concerns in terms of the health of the animal with the iguana specifically we are asking persons not to capture iguanas that are smaller in length from their noses beginning at the end of the tail". They should not be harvesting animals that are smaller than thirteen (13) inches just over a foot in length, these are young animals that are immature and just establishing themselves to the population, so, we do not want you to be taking those out.

Providence is also urging the hunters to avoid taking advantage of the vulnerable animals.

"The animals are a little more vulnerable because of the dryness and the heat and they may come out because of that, so their temperature is regulated by the environment around and where we are having some very dry days and very hot days the  animals may become more vulnerable coming out looking for water, so persons are asked not to take advantage of that. As we have seen in the past posted on social media where persons hunting really without consideration and capturing a lot of animals, we ask persons to desist from that practice to make sure we have a sustain population for the animals".

SOURCE: National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC Radio)