Friday, July 8, 2011

marine iguanas ....

marine iguanas are swimming reptiles ... all iguanas can swim, but marine iguanas swim better ... because they tuck their legs in and have flat tales .. they are made to swim more than you average iguana  ... they are much larger than the lizards i knew in my backyard, growing up in florida ... and a little bit bigger than the green iguana, iggy, in a preschool class i taught in 1989 or so .... and the ones i saw are black ... really a lovely black ... though each island of the galapagos evidently has color variations in their marine iguanas ...

in the galapagos, i don't think any animals have a fear of humans ...since humans aren't allowed to touch any animal, there's no nuisance factor, no reason to fear a bothersome human, cause none have been bothersome .... marine iguanas show no fear ...

on north seymour, our path led by a beachy area ... nearest to the water were large black rocks, iguana colored ... and sandy ground next to that ... on that one bit of beachiness, there were dozens and dozens an dozens of marine iguanas ... to the point that there was some worry that you might step on them ... they were slow movers and not scared we'd step on them, so they were no help at all ! ...

since the marine iguanas are cold blooded, like other reptiles, they bask in the sun to get warmed up ... so it helps that the black rocks get hot, and warm them up ....

they seemed slow while we watched them on land, but evidently they are very fast in the water ... the ones we saw in the water, were holding onto rocks, not actually swimming .... i think if i had seen a marine iguana while i was snorkeling, i would have been a bit worried!

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