| « Previous | Home | Next » | green iguana 25 January, 2007 |
 photo: sue lindley we found this iguana lazily sunning itself by a river near the quaintly named scotland halfmoon village: despite its' colour this is the male of the largest lizard in belize, the green iguana. the female of the species is, err, green! it can grow up to 6 feet in length although the majority of that is tail. because it's flesh is apparently delicious and the rich eggs a prize catch, it is known locally as the 'bamboo chicken' because of its habit of sunning itself in bamboo groves overhanging rivers. when threatened it will drop into the water beneath for safety - a fact that native hunters quickly caught onto, simply waiting in the water and getting a fellow hunter to scare it into jumping. once very common, they are now on the verge of being an endangered species. understanding the pressure from man on their levels in their search for food several captive breeding programmes have recently been established to re-populate wild areas and to show farmers how to manage and breed the iguanas for food. | |
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Posted by davidlindley Archived under: belize, wildlife...and not so wild life |
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