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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Visiting in Lincolnshire last week we decided to stop in at a Butterfly and Falconry center. In with the Butterflies were various reptiles including this lovely, BIG, Green Iguana. It looked as though it was in deep thought. What would an Iguana be thinking about?, I wondered. Then it occurred to me it was probably trying to figure out how it had come to be living in the middle of Lincolnshire instead of in a tropical jungle across the seas. That's what I would think about if I was an Iguana in a hothouse full of tourists.
I shot this between the strands of wire in the cage and cropped it to a suitable composition. I didn't need to do much other than a bit of color adjustment with the color fade tool, and one pass of the sharpen tool. Both done in PSPP XI.
From Wikipedia:
The native range of the Green iguana extends from southern Mexico to central Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia and the Caribbean; specifically Grenada, Curaçao, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Utila. They have been introduced to Grand Cayman, Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, and the US Virgin Islands.
Green iguanas are diurnal and arboreal and often found near water. Agile climbers, iguanas can fall up to 50 feet and land unhurt (iguanas use their hind leg claws to "hook" leaves, branches, or anything in a "clasping" motion to break a fall). During cold, wet weather, Green iguanas prefer to stay on the ground for greater warmth. When swimming an iguana remains submerged and lets its four legs hang limply against its side and propels itself through the water with powerful tail strokes.
Because of the Green iguana's popularity in the pet trade and as a food source in Latin America, they are listed on the CITES Appendix II, which means that while they are not an endangered species, "their trade must be controlled so as to not harm the species in the future".
In southern countries of their range, such as Peru, Green iguanas appear bluish in color with bold black markings. On islands such as Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, and Grenada, a Green iguana's color may range from green to lavender, black, and even pink. Green iguanas from the western region of Costa Rica are red and animals of the northern ranges, such as Mexico, appear orange. Juvenile Green iguanas from El Salvador are often bright blue as babies, however they lose this color as they get older.
Green iguanas possess a row of spines along their backs and along their tails which helps to protect them from predators. Their whiplike tails can be used to deliver painful strikes and like many other lizards, when grabbed by the tail, the iguana can allow it to break, so it can escape and eventually regrow a new one. In addition, iguanas have well developed dewlaps which helps regulate their body temperature. It is also used in courtships and displays.
Green iguanas have excellent vision, enabling them to detect shapes and motions at long distances. As Green iguanas have only a few Rod cells, they have poor vision in low-light conditions. At the same time, they have cells called “double Cone cells” that give them sharp color vision and enable them to see ultraviolet wavelengths. This ability is highly useful when basking so the animal can ensure that it absorbs enough sunlight in the forms of UVA and UVB to produce Vitamin D.
Green iguanas have evolved a white photosensory organ on the top of their heads called the parietal eye, which are also called third eye, pineal eye or pineal gland. This “eye” doesn’t work the same way as a normal eye does as it has only a rudimentary retina and lens and thus cannot form images. It is, however, sensitive to changes in light and dark and can detect movement. This helps the iguana when being stalked by predators from above.
Green iguanas have very sharp teeth that are capable of shredding leaves and even human skin. The teeth are situated on the inner sides of the jawbones which is why they are hard to see in smaller specimens.
Primarily herbivorous, Green iguanas are presented with a special problem for osmoregulation; plant matter contains more potassium and as it has less nutritional content per gram, more must be eaten to meet metabolic needs. As Green iguanas are not capable of creating liquid urine more concentrated than their bodily fluids, like birds they excrete nitrogenous wastes as urate salts through a salt gland. As a result, Green iguanas have developed a lateral nasal gland to supplement renal salt secretion by expelling excess potassium and sodium chloride.
Green iguanas from Guatemala and southern Mexico have small horns on their snouts between their eyes and their nostrils, whereas others do not. Naturalists once classified these iguanas as belonging to different subspecies (Iguana iguana rhinolopha); however, this classification has been found to be invalid as iguanas with similar nose projections appear randomly in other populations and interbreed freely with those that do not share this trait. |
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