Water! Skuttlebutt!

....in that an iguana observing another iguana drinking will do the same: a response of bystanders to information available in their social environment. It is dry and hot at Palo Verde and water sources are known to at least some iguanas. Air conditioners drip water, regularly and reliably. GGG drank and a UM (unmarked) iguana quickly joined.

Remember the sap-eating male iguana? Here he is behind the library. Wasn't thrilled about me but didn't rush to flee, just moved off.

Yes, there is an iguana in the green grass. Does is mean there is a hundred UMs of this size?

The rarely seen Brown-Red-Green, an adult female.

Corporate Portrait

And the rarely seen Blocky, he who rested on a concrete block my first afternoon at the station. (His beads will wait for the next trip.) Blocky visited the water puddle above, walked near the kitchen, traversed GGG's area, and ended the day climbing a huge tree, to a very high secret place to sleep. 

My second last night -- time to sort equipment to leave and begin the packing process... 

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Blue-Pale Blue-Green

Yesterday's Fight Club was just the elimination round for today's excitement. 

Are female iguanas territorial? Possibly, though it needs a few caveats. About what, and when, and against whom is an iguana territorial?

Last night our star of the show, WOG, slept somewhere mysterious and unknown, closer to the front of the OTS office. In this way she could wake up and face her nemisis, the iguana formerly known as UM (unmarked). 

WOG began the day bobbing at all iguanas on the office roof (3) and I decided they had to be caught and marked. After I released the first named Brown-Red-Green, the OTS cook called for me to hurriedly bring the camera. WOG and another UM were fighting, and this was no skirmish. Full, open mouths, bite holds behind the shoulders, croc rolls, and spinning in the dirt for about 10 minutes. Finally the UM spun off to one side instead of around and around, and lo, WOG declared the winner! 

That the loser was a UM meant I still hadn't caught WOG's trouble, so back to trapping. Didn't take long and BPbG is a known iguana. All this before lunch.

The most important question of all this commotion is a simple WHY? BPbG is not near WOG's hide, her pirmary home area/territory. Why is BPbG so important? Is WOG making sure no one challenges her area? Is she letting all know that she is not to be triffled with? What fitness advantages does all her boldness give her compared to more reticent iguanas?

This could work for me.

Yes, it's a young UM -- in OBPb's hide. That will not last. 

WKY

White-Black-Yellow, one of many iguanas never observed fighting. 

Who Are You?! and Iguana Fight Club, Palo Verde Style

Not Aspens in the Fall in CO but Guayacans in  Palo Verde

Who am I, anyway? Am I my resume? Or just a picture...

I need to trap and mark more iguanas! Everywhere I look, here comes another UM (unmarked) lizard. A few I can distinguish from the masses of UMs but not enough.

It was Fight Club Day -- skirmishes and tussles, serious, but no blood shed. Above is Remalia and Sneaker Male. Remalia decided SM should not be near her though they usually feed in the same spot. She lost, with SM chasing her into her pipe refuge. (Remalia aka Bricky aka Red-White-Brown.)

  

Above WOG (bottom) in a big fight with a similar sized UM female on the roof of the Palo Verde OTS office building. Trapping this UM is a high priority --  an important dynamic in the World of WOG and other iguanas.

Brown-Brown-Brown in a tree thought dead.

You might think this tree is dead. I did, I watch iguanas wiggle into the trunk crevices each night. But this is the "Lab/Cistern Guayacan Tree" and parts are much alive.

Boldly Walking

GGG

The shy Green-Green-Green decided today that those yellow flowers of awesomeness were not to be missed. GGG would take 5 steps toward me and stop. He would observe me and his area for a long time. He would make another move. Walk-Stop-Observe-Repeat.

What a change in behavior for a delicious meal! I believe GGG may also be a sneaker male.

Yellow, Gossip, and Sneaker Males

Tabebuia ochracea ssp. neochrysantha

Guayacan trees are in bloom around the OTS station. A couple days ago iguanas explored the hard green buds. Today, aerial hi-jinks for the tasty flowers that look like orchids and smell quite sweet.

WOG going for the yellow.

Toes are grappling hooks for climbing.

These iguanas pay close attention to each other. An iguana enjoying a meal may mean there is plenty of good food for all or simply it is a safe place or time to graze.  In the Big Tree area, smaller iguanas come down from the tree to feed once another iguana has already determined the area is good.

Blocky (left) and Sneaker Male (right).

Sneaker Male was that iguana formerly thought to be a her: skinny, no spikes, perhaps just laid eggs. But 'her' spikes are a bit too much for a female. The head is too large. She's hiding that she's a he. (Sneaker Male is the iguana left to trap.) In a world of male fighting, it's not a bad idea to hide who you are until you can reasonably gain from advertising it.

Today SM was eating when suddenly appeared Blocky (he rests on a concrete block). Blocky proceeded to investigate SM's eating places in hopes he'd find a delectable morsel.

A Present Unwrapped

Methods to test hypotheses. You read, you think, you read more, you propose, you flesh out, you confer. You wrap a package but you don't open it until later and it may not fit what you find.

My iguana groups are bigger and more complicated than expected. An iguana's day is short; the day is done between 2-4 pm. Iguanas spend a lot of time seemingly doing nothing and you do need some something to provide balance.

OBPb

Orange-Blue-Pale Blue, super shy, was climbing vines in WWW's area. Juice, an unmarked male with an injured front left 'wrist' was everywhere. Red-Red-Red caught in a brush area near my room, was also in WWW-land.

I am slowly piecing together who lives where, feeding grounds, preferred hides, and more.

I watched two different males work to eat Guanacaste tree sap, and see grey colors turn to lighter shades of grey, cream, and pastel pinks and blue. That sap must be special.

The Day Begins

..with Howler Monkeys, well, howling, before first light. Then the birder-guests rise and then I follow, about 6:00 am.  When I was trapping, I wanted all set before the lizards thought about getting up. I do rounds of known hides before 6:30 breakfast.

Breakfast, usually just a latte at home, is rice and beans and eggs and fruit and platanos and avocado and fresh fruit and juice and coffee. Comer poquito is the lay of the land if I don't want to return fat.

(Home -- I hear 10 inches of snow. That makes me feel on the other side of the world.)

GWY

Green-White-Yellow's hide is to the left of my building in a concrete half pipe. Usually I can't get nearer than 5 meters before she heads for safety. This morning I attempted to wait out her emergence but she refused, poking out her head and retreating once she'd seen the lurking human.

So I visited GGG and the rest of the gang, and stumbled on GWY on her way to the kitchen. Did she run? No. Just kept on her way, climbing the hillside behind the kitchen/dining hall, adding 2 unmarked iguanas to her entourage. She ate, she rested in the shade, she ate some more. She was without concern; neither myself of other iguanas mattered.

At the end of the day she was in a very small tree, the type you think wouldn't hold an iguana's weight. The tree was ~2 meters from her hide. The scrambling again commenced and she was gone, into her hide. A most interesting set of behaviors. Is she skittish or calm? Is she bold or shy?

Blue-Yellow-Brown

In the woods was BYBr, the largest male yet caught. I knew him from the trap and a tree he climbs near the dining hall. But no idea of daily routine, iguana interactions, nothing.

He did marvelous things today including sharing a siesta spot with a sneaker male!

I sneak around and follow iguanas, learning their refuges and habits, their accomplices and those clearly not desired. I make videos of behavior, I take 250-550 still images a day, and many hand written notes. The land is not at all difficult to cover and the iguana paths pretty apparent through the brush.

Today was a chance to do some laundry. Alejandro found me and managed to help me understand it was Lavenderia time. But far beyond the call of duty, my laundry was hung to dry and returned to me folded!

Before dinner I download all the photos and videos, and get batteries charging for cameras and gps. I look at all the images and compare the bead colors I can see from enlarged image files with my written notes.

Then dinner and a movie. Actually, dinner and a blog, and a few images on FB, and mental plans for the next day.

And like all iguanas, bed time is early.

Self-Possessed Iguana Gives Chase

WOG: White-Orange-Green

WOG is an outgoing lizard -- she will come with a a meter of me, give a little assertion bob, and stay for a spell. On the other hand, she is keenly aware of her fellow lizards, and will chase those who stray too near. That is, she will when it is the chase part of the day. At other times, the same lizards may share a feeding period or shaded area with no contest. 

WOG chasing smaller and younger unmarked iguana from her tree stump and refuge.

Other iguanas in the same area and also with established refuges (a pipe, a tree root, etc.) rarely bob or chase other lizards. Orange-Blue-Pale Blue chases WOG and has made a couple small lunges toward smaller lizards, but she is shy and furtive. Ditto for Blue-Red-White in the same area.

Green-Green-Green

Green-Green-Green is usually quick to her retreat (a pipe) but today seemed beyond any catch and release annoyance. She carefully observed several iguanas feed in her area and found no need to chase them. 

Sneaker male? Spikes are getting long for a female.

One of the many Unmarked (UM) iguanas waiting for the next trapping time. 

Like all field work, some things almost need to go sideways. Today the still camera thought about giving up on auto-focusing but righted itself and the video camera batteries drained quickly. I suppose my worst complaint is too many iguanas -- a crocodile tear if one was ever shed!

Iguanas, Lightning, Rain, and Fuego!

Lizard high in Big Tree.

Big Tree as in Big Tree Area. This tree is Grand Central Station -- one of the big males and at least 5 smaller lizards sleep in this tree. They wake up in the tree, they bask, they fight in the tree, they make a fair racket coming down the tree. 

Orange-Black-Red

That's the iguana formerly known as Unmarked Big Tree Male. He had fun with me for a few days, eating fruit leading to the trap, turning around, and giving a good assertion bob: "Take that, stupid trap and the human you rode in on!"  But today he walked right over to the trap in a different area, and strode right on in. He was not amused.

Other iguanas can do everything but go inside the trap -- but not for lack of trying. 

Late afternoon  big thunderstorm rolled in -- and a lightning strike started a field on fire just on the other side of the road. While it poured, the smoke filled the area. Through it all W-O-G sat on her end-of-day stump, no particular concerns.

Tomorrow, a break from catching iguanas and a full day of observations of group behavior. I'll park near the Big Tree and see who interacts with whom, and what happens.

22/More Than I Can Count

Little Triple Yellow coming down the Big Tree around Noon today. YYY is just about 800 grams, a young lizard. Bold, nonetheless. Goes where furtive Blue-White-Red fears to go first, though she is large and older. Such are the very interesting things iguanas may reveal over time.

At the other end of the scale, literally, is Blue-Yellow-Brown, weighing in at near 5000 grams! He found the bait and was tricky to remove from the trap. 

The very kind chefs at OTS-Palo Verde provide me fruit for my trap. It's a big hit for numerous critters. After this monkey stole my bait and got herself captured, her buddies 

yelled mightily for unconditional release. I complied immediately. (I think a squirt gun would be useful.)

There are many, many, many iguanas here. That is a fact that brings happiness to my research. It's also daunting; I will not capture them all this trip. 22 are identified and they reveal a smidge of their being daily. 

Monkeys, Bobbers, and Big Tree Area

New group today: Big Tree Area with requisite iguanas, hide holes, and open area for basking.  A mix of females, a couple males, and lo, some younger lizards. 

You may be able to make out the bits of watermelon, and the young iguana trying a taste. This method nicely leads the iguana into the trap with minimal fuss. Unless, of course, a more dominant animal sees you eating something that might be worth giving you chase, and gets trapped instead. Useful for me, but could make it interesting trying to catch the younger lizards.

The Big Tree Area hosted a band of white-faced monkeys who stole trap bait and ran off with a colored fishing bobber up a tree. It was dropped in disgust when it provided no nourishment.

White-Orange-Green (WOG), the first female caught in the Big Tree Area, decided the Wire Box of Treats was great fun! She was more than willing to be caught multiple times for a bite of fruit. 

WOG was nice enough to also let me see several bouts of agonistic behaviors...it appears she is top dog at Big Tree.

Six in the Day

Red-Red-Red. Young and wily female, full tail with no regrowth. 

This warm day, I caught 6 iguanas: 1 large male, 5 females. I scouted and identified three different groups to concentrate my trapping, noosing, and netting. 

Yesterday's unknown male, now Blue-Blue-Blue (B-B-B).

B-B-B's funky regrown tail.

The iguana that shares a refuge with a snake finds humans less than desirable.

This is the first part/where the wheels begin to turn

Male C. similis, soon to be a known lizard.

I am here at Palo Verde -- CO to TX to Liberia, car trip to PV National Park, and an afternoon of scouting iguanas. The herp gods saw to deliver all field equipment in good repair, the weather is sunny, warm, and breezy, and lizards are active.

I've seen hide holes under cement, boards, in tree roots, and pipes. Males and females of different sizes (likely different age classes). Other reptiles also  make use of pipes, close to a gravid female:

Tomorrow -- first iguana catches and gps coordinates of refugia.

The slim gray hermit of the rocks, With bright, inquisitive, quick eyes

Two females and male C. similis basking, and gazing in different directions.

Clearly, this gray lizard is no hermit. And if you're not a hermit, just what is your community?

I'm off tomorrow for Palo Verde National Park in Costa Rica to start ground work to answer that big question -- what is the social structure of C. similis and WHY? 

Female C. similis.

She offers me her sixth sense, Her vigilance

Female C. similis basking.

Are the Three Graces a Greek Chorus as they perform vigilance behaviors? We don't yet know. Each lizard more likely scans their immediate area without synchronizing activity, lending more eyes to predator detection and male mating offensives.

Like humans, iguanas may be startled by a loud sound or sudden motion, but the interesting vigilance is the glance-around-the-restaurant-to-see-who-is-where inclination of individuals in groups. How often do you scan? do you scan more if you are seated near the front door and less if you are near the kitchen? What do you ignore? What starts your inner sixth sense humming, suggesting emerging trouble? How much do you rely on the nervous, sidelong glance and posture of your neighbor? And how many individuals makes for enough vigilance cover so you can enjoy your evening meal -- or great basking spot in the case of a large lizard?

Female (front) and Male (rear) C. similis, four eyes covering all cardinal directions.