Friday, January 29, 2010

Iguana in a tree (5)

Was this iguana checking out the new condo building on the beach? To take my photo that I showed yesterday, I walked up from the beach to get a little closer to the building and to have a view without as many trees in the way.

After I took the photo, I turned around to walk back towards the beach and found myself almost face to face with this iguana on a low branch. Green iguanas blend in well with leaves, as I have shown in some of my past photos. Black iguanas like this one are well camouflaged when sitting on a branch.

They are quiet, usually still, and often you will not know they are nearby unless you keep a trained eye looking for them. As more condos are built in the area, hopefully there will still be enough vegetation for the wildlife. The Nobel Peace Prize winning President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, adopted restrictions that for new buildings along the Pacific ocean will require that new developments can build or pave only half of the land, and the remainder must be left in vegetation.

This week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo website we are showing photos of Peru, particularly Machu Picchu, one of the wonders of the world.

10 comments:

Kate said...

Great capture. They are wonderful creatures.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if a Midwesterner could ever get used to such encounters?

Sharon said...

Oh, I love this photo. This guy is a real beauty.

Lowell said...

Well, I'm impressed, Dave! These rascals are notoriously hard to photograph...our daughter in Ft. Lauderdale has dozens of the damn things on her property...they can be very destructive and they breed like rabbits. And some of them get huge! And they bite!

Anyway, they hide up in her trees...I can hear them, but cannot see them!

I think my daughter and family are going to have to take steps to get rid of them pretty soon.

Lois said...

Nice shot Dave! We don't have these critters here in north Florida like they do down south. We do have the tiny little anole lizards though and for some reason they have been getting into my house lately. They sit very still too when you first spot them, but when you try to catch them they are really fast. I usually just capture them and through them back outside.

glenda said...

Again Costa Rica is putting the environment first. Good for them! I have walked under trees where iguanas are laying in the branches. If you really look closely you find them.

Judy said...

You must always have that feeling of being watched! Nice shot.

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

Jacob,
I am sorry that your daughter's iguanas in Fort Lauderdale are so aggressive. Ours in Costa Rica are not. Sometimes you see them walking down the sidewalk in the middle of town and they don't bother anybody and nobody bothers them, except for tourists getting very close while taking photos.

Maybe the intemperate iguanas in Florida have become irritable because they used to have the place all to themselves and now there are so many Northerners who have moved into South Florida.

Unknown said...

Another great capture, David?

Three Rivers, Michigan said...

I'd be pretty startled to find myself close to one unexpectedly - will they jump at you? Oh wait - you say they are, if not friendly, at least indifferent to people!

Great shot.

Three Rivers Daily Photo

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