Welcome to Day 9 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:
'Wildlife Encounters'
At first I wasn’t sure what to make of rocks littered by
sneezing lizards. Sneezing lizards? Yup, they were definitely sneezing… and
what sneezes! I could see stuff shooting out of their blunt snouts with no
regard to the proximity of their fellows.
Now, I mentioned in my Flightless Cormorant post that the
Galapagos Islands are chock-full of wonderful wildlife and that includes these
Iguanas – or Marine Iguanas. And despite their rather disreputable appearance,
they are nevertheless unique and wonderful creatures.
The sneezing is a result of their need to expel the salt
they ingest when they’re feeding. The iguanas have developed a special nasal
gland which allows them to excrete the potentially toxic salt crystals.
Only the largest iguanas are able to withstand the cold Galapagos seas long enough to actually dive underwater to feed off the seaweeds and algae.
The smaller specimens simply scrape the algae off exposed rocks on the
shoreline.
Being cold blooded, all the iguanas spend a great deal of time basking on the rocks… and sneezing.
Being cold blooded, all the iguanas spend a great deal of time basking on the rocks… and sneezing.
See you tomorrow – I’m heading west to a continent hitherto unvisited during this challenge. Can you guess where and
what the next creature will be?
If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE
