It's always sad to leave our little friends on vacation, but at least on this one to the Galápagos my wife and I had a pacifier :lol:
This fella is a marine iguana. They're around 1 m long and as you can see, there are piles of them! When they swim up out of the ocean, they're like a mini Nessie and they will snort excess salt out their noses (the white around their faces). I love how you can see dragon-esque poses in them in the 2nd pic. There's "splat", "I'm a big dragon", "stink eye", "sexy leg", and the ever-popular "meh. humans"
There is also a land iguana which we saw only once, and a much smaller "lava lizard".
Wow! It must be amazing to see them in person; I've only ever seen them on TV, and that's likely going to be the extent of my iguana viewing, but I love your pics!
Here's one more closeup of the big guys and one of the lava lizards (the female is the one with the colors). Fun fact for the M&C crowd. The spur of rock in the movie is actually an anachronism. At the time the movie was set, it would have been a much larger outcropping. The present-day formation is the result of U.S. military target practice. :study:
Fun fact for the M&C crowd. The spur of rock in the movie is actually an anachronism. At the time the movie was set, it would have been a much larger outcropping. The present-day formation is the result of U.S. military target practice. :study:
I'd respond with a line from M*A*S*H (the movie) but it'd likely conflict with forum rules on decorum, so I'll "mash" it up with a euphemism from Firefly/Serenity...
"Gorram Army."
:? You could identify one particular outcropping from another, or was this "tour-guide trivia"? :?
Lava Lizard. I like that. Cool looking lizard(s), too. (And who knew there are 22 species of them!)
It appears (from a quick google search) that they've not made it (yet) to the /hobby/pet trade, let alone CB (No "for sale"s or care sheets). Not that I'd expect a Galapagos species to be found (despite their being the most common lizard on the archipelago), but 17 of those species are from the coasts of South America & environs.
It's probably that or kill each other--not a whole lotta room to get away from each other on an archipelago; I spoze it's possible their "society" evolved out of necessity(?) :dontknow:
But they should have left the soundtrack in...
We gotta get out of this place
If it's the last thing we ever do
We gotta get out of this place
'Cause girl, there's a better life for me and you
I don't have a picture here at work of it, but it's a very prominent spike of rock several hundreds of meters tall at the edge of the water. We took a zodiac around it looking for penguins (of all things at the equator), and that's when the guide dropped said 411.