testmeat photoblog

here's another photo of a couple of marine iguanas from the time i spent in the galapagos. they were all over the place, in most of the islands i visited, so it's strange to think they they don't exist anywhere else on the planet. they are cool looking creatures on land but what makes these lizards special is that they get their food from the sea - and i was lucky enough to see one nibbling away at some rock algae on one of my first snorkel trips. they can dive down to a depth of 30 metres and hold their breath for up to 45 minutes, however they can only spend a limited amount of time in the cold water before they have to climb back on land and catch some rays to warm up. so it's common to see them in groups, sticking close to each other to heat up their cold blood. even with this knowledge it's difficult not to anthropomorphise their behaviour in a picture like this, so i like to think there's more to this embrace than just an ectothermic imperative to regulate body temperature. or to put it another way, i think these two were buddies.

here's the original