At Abbott’s lagoon, Pt. Reyes.
Swam in the salt water.
32 known species. 70 subspecies.
Native to the Americas, ranging from the top of Canada to halfway down Argentina.
Bites are rarely fatal to humans if treated promptly.An estimated 7,500 people are bitten by venomous snakes in the United States each year, with about five deaths (Wikipedia).
Eats small bugs including crickets, spiders, ticks, scorpions, and even baby lizards. Females lay eggs that hatch July to September, when teeny lizards can be seen running around. They love the paving around our pool.
Lazing in the summer sun – harmless.
Thanks to Frank Smith at the Grupo Ecológico de la Costa Verde in San Pancho, we saw newborn turtles and found five nests late at night, including one mother laying the eggs. The mother goes into a trance when she is laying eggs. The incubation period is 45 days, and the baby turtles that survive to adulthood (1 in 500) will come back to the same beach to lay their own eggs. Click here to see the film.
We drove by a tiny Spek’s Hingeback tortoise in Savuti. Bea and Mila played with it a while and wished it could be their pet.
We saw a giant one that looked like a dinosaur. We saw a small one that looked like a leguaan. We slept beside them at the Zambezi River (not in our beds)
A beautiful creature, very colourful. It looked a bit like a dragon that had lost its wings.
The lizard was in the King’s Enclosure, we watched it climb a high horizontal rock wall.
This lovely chameleon was climbing up Bea’s top and opened its mouth wide just before it reached her face. It was bright orange inside and we all got a big fright. Imagine what a fly feels like…
When it ran to hide in the bushes, big grey splodges appeared on its skin (camouflage). Its tail is longer than its body.