Brachylophus fasciatus

Family : Iguanidae

 

Brachylophus fasciatus, Iguanidae

The Fiji banded iguana (Brachylophus fasciatus) stands among the very rare non-American iguanas. We don’t know how it reached the Fiji, thousands of miles far from America. Maybe its ancestors have come through Australia at the time of the Gondwana. It is a diurnal arboreal species that can reach the length of 60 cm. Apart rapid variations of colour, due to emotional reasons or of camouflage, the livery of the males, definitely territorial, displays some white bands tending to pale blue. The females are almost wholly of a nice bright green colour and lay 3-6 eggs surveyed till hatching for 160-170 days. Typically vegetarian, this iguana nourishes of leaves, fruits and flowers, with a particular predilection for those of the Hibiscus tiliaceus, but when in captivity, possibly for a greater protein input, the young nourish also of insects. Most unluckily, it is an endangered species, included in the famous “Red List”, quite seriously threatened in nature because of the loss of the habitat, the rats, the mongooses and the cats introduced by man © Giuseppe Mazza

 

 

 

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