According to internet blogs, the Gold Dust Day Gecko originated from Madagascar, and was introduced to Hawaii in 1974 by a university student. Bright green in color, it gets its name from the gold specs across its back. We saw this one at the airport sunny itself on a rock among passengers.
Credit my daughter for being able to pick out this chameleon. True to it’s name, its multi-shades of green made it hard to see at first. It was in a mid-size dense tree out front of a breakfast place we were eating at in Maui, Hawaii. This is my first chameleon to see and photograph in the wild, and can say I’m amazed at the horns, the ability for the eyes to look forward and backward at same time, and how the hands can grip a small branch so tightly. And yes, they do rock back and forth as they walk!
Growing up in the North, I thought iguanas were these exotic reptiles. The first time I saw one live in Mexico was fascinating… and then I saw another… and another… and… you get the idea. This handsome specimen preferred the shade of a palm tree by the pool.
How about this for excitement… Watching a jaguar eat a chicken’s foot from a human’s hand in the middle of the night! Belize’s Caribbean Wildlife Centre rehabilitates injured wild animals, and are known for their jaguar community.
Ok… the situation is not as intense as it would appear. We are at the Belize Tropical Education Centre for an overnight stay. They care for a number of wild crocodiles in the marsh on-site, and have built a narrow boardwalk as an outlook. Here we watched one evening at sunset – hence the light on the crocs right eye – as a male and female spent time together (not sure what to call this in crocodile language!). Took this shot laying on my stomach, roughly 5 feet above the water and 10 feet away.
“Come see this dad”, yell the kids, “and bring your camera!”. With the swim platform a few hundred feet off-land, I’m now looking at this majestic Heron standing on it… poking at its eye. Is he – or she – really doing that? Yup, he/she is!
life art images 