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.