Cayman Compass
Cayman beauties: the blue iguana
Peter the iguana basks in royal limelight
Peter the blue iguana may rank among the most famous reptiles in the world right now.
After a highly publicised visit last week from the Prince of Wales, who greeted the rare, Caymanian reptile with a beaming smile and a ginger pat on the head, Peter is basking in his 15 minutes of fame.
From The Telegraph in London to Canada’s Toronto Sun, Peter and the prince captured headlines the world over.
For the 15-year-old iguana, who calls the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park home, the March 28 royal encounter was not his first time in the spotlight.
The visit did, however, bestow its own prestige upon the reptile, now known affectionately among Blue Iguana Recovery Programme staff as ‘Sir Peter’.
Operations Manager Nick Ebanks said Peter has also been featured in National Geographic and has been filmed by camera crews from the United States and Europe.
His uncharacteristically docile demeanour has made him a favourite among tour groups since the programme took him on after finding him as a hatchling in the wild in 2003. While blue iguanas can be quite territorial, even fighting other iguanas to the death to protect their turf, Peter seems to enjoy human attention.
“We noticed he was pretty easy to handle. He was docile. He actually liked being handled for some reason. So we kept him around,” Ebanks said.
“We put him inside in one of the pens and when we’d take the tours around, he’d always be there.”
While painting and preparing the botanic park grounds for the royal visit, Ebanks said Peter acted much in the way one would expect from a family dog – insisting on being petted and returning for more. Read the full story at www.caymancompass.com.
