Journal Entry for Tuesday, July 20, 1999
    Wildlife Around Utila

After my early morning at Pumpkin Hill I decided to snap some photos of common wildlife around Utila.  

I find the Shaky Paw Lizard to be the most amusing reptile on the island. He's not much bigger than the common Anole Lizard found in Florida. When at rest Shaky Paw will rapidly spin one or the other of his front legs, hence the name. Funny looking, to me.  I took this picture on the beach at the North Shore.

This is a picture of the road through the bush from Pumpkin Hill.  It reminds me of our canopy roads, Tallahasseans.  And also of Jurassic Park, with it's lizards and iguanas.

Crabs populate the entire island.  I snapped this photo along the road from Pumpkin Hill but I've even got these in my yard.  The Utilian equivalent of moles, I guess.  Can you spot all three in this photo?

This is Caroline of the Iguana Research & Breeding Station which has been set up by a German group to study the Spiny Tail Iguana. The Spiny Tail Iguana is found no place in the world but Utila. Part of the Station's mission is to educate people not to eat the iguana, which I'm told tastes like chicken. (People say that about almost everything, don't they.)  It's illegal in Honduras to kill any iguana but the Station tells people that if you're going to eat an iguana, eat the more common Black Iguana which also lives in great numbers on the mainland. Unfortunately, the Spiny Tail is more easily caught because they're less shy around humans. Caroline is a German biology student on the island for a few months to volunteer at the Station.

The Spiny Tail Iguana is known to islanders as the Swamper. (It lives in the swamp and seeks dry ground only to lay eggs.) The Station raises some of the iguana in captivity to be released.  This is a young Swamper perched on top of a log. I see lots of iguana here (although I can't tell a Swamper from a Black Iguana) but I have yet to get a good picture. They run too fast!

Dave Feurtado, a church member working with the Beaumont team uncovered this scorpion while moving lumber around.  I'd seen smaller ones while living in Central Florida; this is the first one I've seen here.  (And hopefully the last.)

Okay, this isn't wildlife.  But he's a handsome fellow, don't you think? I snapped this on my way to supper with the Beaumont team. Doubtless he ended up on someone's plate somewhere. A pig fry is a popular party for islanders. They put a large kettle over a wood fire and cook down fat from the pig to fry its meat in.