I had briefly mentioned it before, but one of my new pastimes is hunting and catching small green iguanas. Britton thinks I am crazy, but I really do like to do it. So far this has just been a catch and release practice, but maybe someday we will grill up some iguana tail pinchos (kabobs). These lizards are invasive to the island and are everywhere! There is hardly a day that goes by that we don’t see them on the ground or in the trees! So I have plenty of opportunities for the hunt.

An iguana and his tail

The key to catching these iguanas is to be quick and to divert their attention. You can’t be timid. You must strike like a ninja. I watched the white Garza (cattle egret) birds hunting for the geckos and found that they strike once and don’t waver.

Watching these birds taught me a thing or two about lizard hunting. I can even catch the little gecko lizards as well

So I grab at the tail and hold on for dear life. They will twist and twist and try and snap at your fingers, but if you hang on to the top of the tail you will have him for as long as you want him. If he twists too much, he will break away the tail and run off. It is really weird when this happens because the tail keeps twitching and moving around like a snake for about 5 minutes! In this video, I had caught him but the tail twisted off so I tried again and scored!

The next level up would be to catch the big guys, but I am not sure I am quite ready to be grabbing at these ones just yet!

A little meaner looking, doncha think?