Iguanidae
Across the warm areas of the world long, lumpy lizards lounge on sun-warmed rocks;
surveying the world with a lidded eye. I've met four of the eight genera--Green
Iguanas (iguana iguana), Rock Iguanas (iguana cyclura), Marine
Iguanas (iguana amblyrhynchus) and Galapagos Land Iguanas (iguana conolophus) and I'm
on a hunt for the rest.
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| Click on the pictures below to see a plethora of iguanas. All
photographs are by Dorie Parsons and may not be used without the artist's
permission. |
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Green
Iguanas range from
Mexico through Central and South America and many of the Caribbean
islands. There are also feral populations in California, Florida and
Hawaii. Each country I visited has its own shade or tint of iguana iguana
to admire.
Iguanas are arboreal. They are good swimmers, jumpers, diggers
and baskers. The Caribbean islanders call them tree or bamboo
chickens and say (surprise!) they taste like that poultry.
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| Rock
Iguanas have a much
smaller range than green iguanas. One species of rock iguanas, the
highly endangered blue iguana (Cyclura lewisi) is only found on the Grand Cayman islands.
There I visited the fascinating Blue
Iguana Recovery Program, an experience I highly recommend. |
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Marine Iguanas
on the
Galapagos are descended from a land iguana from the South American
mainland. It is the only marine iguana in the world. It's
sooty-black skin helps it blend in with the black lava rocks and enables
it to absorb more heat from the sun. |
| Galapagos Land Iguanas
are endemic to the Galapagos Islands. Since 1976 the Galapagos
National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station have been
working to conserve the species. |
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