Blog Schedule

I post on Monday with an occasional random blog thrown in for good measure. I do my best to answer all comments via email and visit around on the days I post.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Iguanas

My fondness for iguanas knows no limit. I keep telling myself I don't need any more pictures of iguanas. But every time I'm in the islands I keep taking more pictures of iguanas. Mostly they hang out in trees because they're arboreal and like to eat the new tender leaves and flowers that grow on the tips of branches. Iguanas are vegetarians, I don't think they even eat insects. They love flamboyant flowers, tamarind flowers and most especially they love hibiscus. They like lettuce too.

I always feel sad for the caged iguanas people keep as pets. The ones I've always seen don't have very good color because they haven't gotten enough sun. And the poor things have no where to climb. However, iguanas are smart and can be trained to walk on a leash and use a litter box. And they will gladly drape themselves across your shoulders.

Around our home in St. Thomas there may be as many as two dozen that live in the trees. Wait! Listen! Did you here that crashing of bush? Yep. It was an iguana. When they want to get from a high point to a low point they simply let go and fall. Crash, crash, crash! through the branches and leaves. They will fall from the top of a tree all the way to ground.

Even though they mostly hang out in trees, they can be found anywhere. On rocks by the beach (they are very good swimmers), near mangrove swamps, running across the road, and at public places where people feed them.

Anyways...here are some pictures of iguanas.


8 comments:

  1. Great pictures! You can't take too many of those.

    It's sad that the pets don't get enough sunlight. How nice to see them in their natural habitat.

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  2. Love these pics. Lime juice is the best. So vibraint.

    Great to see you finished your Nano book ... and knowing you, it'll be a clean draft.

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  3. Very cool photos!!
    Limejuice is so pretty!
    That is something that there could be two dozen in one tree!

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  4. Thanks Adrienne and Vijaya. Lime Juice is the best. I hope he's doing well after I rescued him from the ocean.

    Oh Kelly! You make me laugh. There are not 2 dozen iquanas in one tree. Our house is surrounded by trees. They live all over the yard in the TREES!

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  5. I am SICK with envy! I would do a lot to be able to hold an iguana or rescue one -- and I wish I could see them hanging in trees, eating leaves. I love lizards!

    One of my colleagues was teaching in the very same classroom I spend most of my time in, and a lizard the size of iguana was sunning itself on the windowsill. She was too terrified to stay in the classroom. I couldn't get over how unfair it was: I would have done anything for her lizard experience and yet she didn't want to teach in the same classroom because she was too afraid it would come back.

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  6. Ah Mary, I don't understand how people can be afraid of lizards. Too bad you couldn't switch classrooms.

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  7. These are great! I went to your slideshow too and enjoyed all the others there. So impressive.

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  8. Great slideshow! I find myself curious about them, but a little scared at the same time...don't know why...but you pics don't make them seem so scary...Hugs...

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