INDEX	Sunday Dec 26, 2021
This is a blue iguana, supposedly unique to Grand Cayman. It is thought to live for about 69 years (same as me, so far), a surprisingly precise figure for a rough estimate. They don't really know how long it lives but can tell you it grows to about 5 feet (they do Imperial on the Caymans, as befits a British Overseas Territory).
This little fellow, who came to say hello when I was in the Botannic Park, was about a metre long; so fairly large. It didn't seem much concerned about me, but had a powerful interest in the bits of chocolate that had fallen from my ice lolly before it arrived. Blue iguanas came close to extinction about a decade ago, but now there are several bodies dedicated to preserving them. Numbers allegedly reduced to such an extent that I doubt it was a viable population unless it did the unthinkable (in Caymans terms) and interbred with the invasive green iguana. Green iguanas are a much hardier lot and it is said the authorities here issued a bounty on their heads (or other parts), though I can not find any evidence for this on the internet. You occasionally see the green ones crossing the roads and it is a rookie tourist trap to park underneath a tree since you are quite likely to come back to a car covered in presents from a green iguana that had been hiding up that tree. As a result, many Cayman trees have a silver strap round their bark, like a bandage. This is supposed to discourage the iguanas from tree climbing.
INDEX	Sunday Dec 26, 2021