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.