Friday photo - this one from Costa Rica:
(click for larger image)One creature you’re bound to see in Costa Rica is an iguana. They look so primitive - surely they’re related to the creature from the black lagoon. Iguanas are big, too - up to 6 feet long!
The thing that most surprised me was seeing iguanas high up in the canopy of the Costa Rica rainforest, sunning themselves on upper branches. I’m not sure why I expected them to be earthbound — I guess I was used to lizards here in the desert. The claws in the photo look good for tree climbing, and indeed iguanas love to be 40 or 50 feet up in a tree. They’re reported to survive a fall to the ground from that height, or they can jump into the water and swim away.
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We do Costa Rica wildlife tours every year, and they’re always a big hit! Our adventurous wenches see iguanas, monkeys, sloths, macaws, toucans, and much more. Costa Rica is an amazing place!
2 responses so far ↓
1 Holly // Jul 15, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I own a lovely 5′ long iguana. For the most part the females are very nice, but the males can get mean. Captive iguanas make great pets, providing you find one with a good disposition. They are a very old species, and actually a lot smarter than you’d think.
2 Deanna Keahey // Jul 16, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Hi Holly -
What a fascinating pet! I believe you about them being smarter than you’d think — this one looks like he has a gleam in his eye. I don’t think I’d want to meet up with a 5′ long mean male, though!
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