Marine Iguanas

Marine iguanas are one of a few different kinds of lizards prevalent on the Galápagos Islands. There are also land iguanas and a smaller type of lizard called the lava lizard. The Marine iguana sort of has a humanesque head. Their skin is all black and of course they are a dangerous wild animal. Their tail serves as their main weapon, but they have sharp claws and a fierce bite to back it up. Like most of the animals on the islands they are fairly tame but it is prohibited to touch or interfere with them. This is how the islands are kept clean and natural. I went to an island with a bunch of marine iguanas living on sharp lava rock and took pictures. There were also small penguins living on this islet and in one area where there were mangroves and a small patch of sand there were sea lions sunning themselves. I made sure and took lots of pictures. The marine iguana lives on land but can swim underwater for up to an hour. They eat seaweed from the seafloor. I wanted to see what they look like swimming underwater but I didn't get the chance. I did however swim with sea turtles off the coast of the island of Genovesa. Other people on the tour had underwater cameras but I didn't so I wasn't able to take any pictures. They are very placid animals and you can swim right next to them.

Land iguanas as opposed to marine iguanas do not swim into the water, but rather stay on land and keep a diet of fresh vegetation and insects. They will eat small rodents as well, making them omnivorous. The way to tell a land iguana from a marine iguana is that a land iguana will always have some yellow skin on its body whereas a marine iguana will be all black. In Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela, there were iguana crossings marked on the roadsides. Quite often you would see the iguanas, sometimes very large, crossing the road in a line. Of course the wildlife is very precious and the guides or whoever I was riding with would slow down and maneuver around the passing iguana.

Sometimes you can find them clumped together in a group sunning themselves out in the open, whether it be on a rock or a wooden bridge.  As you approach them they will scatter slightly.  If you stop they will stop.  They will move away proportionately to the amount that you move towards them, meaning that if you move a bit, they move a bit.  This can be kind of fun, but you have to remember that even the babies can whip you with their tail and bite you.  I did happen to see one swimming on the surface of the sea one day by the black lava rocks on the beach near town.It wasn't what I wanted though, I wanted to see it swimming underwater like a fish. 

Here is a picture of the most humanesque iguana I encountered.  This head is perhaps in line with Darwin's theory that all species evolved from the same single celled organism.  I think the head is like that of a hominid, one of the early cave man tribes from hundreds of thousands of years ago.