Belize Treasures - Spiny-tailed Iguana

Meet the amazing spiny-tailed iguana. These lizards, which sometimes grow over four feet in length, are seen throughout many of the Caribbean countries, including on small islands. Here are a few cool tidbits of information:

Spiny-tailed iguanas may not look like they could run all that fast, but they are speed demons. In fact, they are considered the fasted lizards in the world, running at up to 21.5 miles per hour (34 km/hr). The older, larger adults cannot run this fast (I can identify with that), but the smaller, younger ones can, especially when fleeing from predators.

Spiny-tailed iguana hatchlings are often bright green, which makes them easy to confuse with young green iguanas. But they soon turn to the more familiar grey and black colors.

Spiny-tailed iguanas are predators when they are young, feeding mostly on insects, but they turn into herbivores as they grow larger, eating flowers, leaves, and fruits (but they won't pass up a bird or rodent if they have the opportunity).

Quick story: The last photo shows the tail of one of these lizards protruding from a hole in a tree. Trish and I found it this way, and we were almost convinced the lizard was stuck. I tugged on the tail a bit, and the lizard moved, so we knew it was still alive, but it had jammed itself in there really tight. It was still there the next day. I tugged again, and this time the lizard moved farther into the hole, so I realized it wasn't actually stuck. And on the third day, when we walked past the tree, it was gone. I guess it just liked being there and wasn't in any hurry to leave.

Photos by Stan C. Smith