A German tourist caught trying to smuggle endangered iguanas out of the Galapagos Islands has been jailed for four years.

Dirk Bender was detained on July 8, 2012 after Galapagos National Park officials stopped him at Baltra Island airport carrying a suspicious looking package.

The officials found four Galapagos land iguanas inside the package wrapped in canvas. The endangered animals, which are native to the Galapagos, can weigh in at more than 13 kg when fully grown and measure more than one metre in length.

A statement released by the Galapagos National Park said Bender had been found guilty of altering the local ecosystem of the archipelago, according to AFP.

Bender will serve his sentence in Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil, 1,000 km from the Galapagos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978.