Curacao reptiles, and their hidden lives!

Well hello friends, today I'm going to write about the wondrous reptiles off our tiny rock Curacao. So let us start!

Meet "lagadishi" she's a small brown lizard and happy as you can see.

I love you!

I say she as she is the female off her species, the males are blue in color.

Meet "blò-blò" the great blue lizard!

I'm blue da ba dee da ba die. (Click for song)

During the day they run all over the place looking for food, you rarely see them together unless they are fighting for food. They eat small insects and love fruit. They are not dangerous, carry no diseases and actually help reduce harmful insects that invade your home! Yet it seems most locals love to smash, kick and demise these innocent animals. They are however a vital part off the ecosystem of Curacao, without them you would not see these creatures but this.

We rule now humans!

Next up is this lovely little guy! The "totèki", you want this one around your house!

Why hate me?

This little innocent looking gecko can do something really cool, it has a fan in its neck that it can just whip out and display an array off colors to attract mates or to warn off predators. It mostly lives in trees or high places largely due to it feeding on mosquitoes. This little creature can eat more flying blood suckers then most others. They make sure we have less to worry about while sitting outside at night enjoying a nice drink. Imagine them gone, we would be locked in our homes scratching ourselves to dead or spraying chemicals all around trying to avoid being eaten alive! They really are our friends, yet most on the island despise these harmless creatures.

Next up we have the friendly bug muncher "pega pega" it is called this because it sticks to, well, everything.

I'm innocent man, this is racist!

Local lore has christened it pega pega ("sticky sticky"), because it is rumored to stick to your skin. While I seen many stick to things better then spiderman! I never seen any even dare to come close to me. These creatures come out at night and go to lights and eat the bugs attracted to them. They are seclusive silent killers! Off bugs, they are harmless to humans in every way!

Many off them are see through, this makes them fascinating, and a bit disturbing to watch.But non the less, we would be covered in insects without them!


Next up is the great "yuana"!

Yo!

These creatures are interesting to say the least, they eat mostly fruit! They can grow to a pretty decent size. It grows to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in length from head to tail, although a few specimens have grown more than 2 metres (6.6 ft) with body weights upward of 20 pounds (9.1 kg). Interesting about them is that they do not pee, they excrete nitrogenous wastes as urate salts through a salt gland! These buggers are very peaceful, but when threatened they can get nasty. Green Iguanas have very sharp teeth that are capable of shredding leaves and even human skin. These teeth are shaped like a leaf, broad and flat, with serrations on the edge. The similarity of these teeth to those of one of the first dinosaurs discovered. Next to this they got their own whip, their whip-like tails can be used to deliver painful strikes and like many other lizards, when grabbed by the tail, the iguana can allow it to break, so it can escape and eventually regenerate a new one. They are basically the Indiana Jones off the Island. Swinging from tree to tree, escaping danger, going through the bushes, being hunted by locals for your meat!

Just try and get me!

Yeah, pass!

People hunt these creatures, tie them by the tail, sell them next to the road. Then descale them, cut them up and make soup out off them. The meat has little value in protein, fat, or even vitamins and minerals. But the people believe it will work like Viagra because these lizards have 2 slongs. So off course that must mean that eating them will make your flobber became rock hard again right. Well no, it all in the mind. It works as well as eating chicken gives you the power off flight or laying eggs. Or eating cow meat lets you produce more milk! Yet people love myths, so they will keep killing these creatures till they realize it is doing nothing for their private parts!


Well my friends, hope I might have helped a lizard survive another day! They are more our friends then you realize that is for sure!

I love you... you lov...

Except for Barney the purple annoying dinosaur, he can be made into whatever soup you want, side effects may be smiling while you eat it, combined with spontaneous singing and dancing!


Till next time!