Hailing from South America and Central America, the green iguana can be easily found in Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay and the Caribbean. Some of the breeds of the green iguana are now also spotted in Hawaii and Florida. This green iguana is the largest type of lizard that happens to inhabit much of the territories of United States.
An interesting fact is that the term green iguana does not mean that all these reptiles are green. The majority of matured iguanas have uniform colors but the younger ones can have other colors, depending on their health, mood, temperature, and social statures.
In approximately three years, young twelve-gram green iguana can turn into a one kilogram adult green iguana. The majority of the well-fed matured green iguanas can weight about 4 and 6 kilograms but sometimes they can also reach the 8 kilogram weight.
green iguanas are known as arboreal lizards, therefore they enjoy living on top of tree canopies. When they are young, the green iguanas tend to stay in the lower portions but as they grow up they like it high above. They spend most of the time basking in the sun but the females sometimes go down in order to lay their eggs. Being great swimmers, they normally search for habitats surrounded by water in order to escape the predators.
Talking about distinct features, one of them is that they have a dewlap that can be found under their throats. This specific feature is mostly encountered in the male green iguanas rather than in the females. The parietal eye works like a sort of meter for the solar energy and contributes to the maturity of the endocrine and thyroid glands in these reptiles.
After approximately 65 days upon the mating period, the female green iguana is ready to lay her eggs. In about three days, 10 to 30 pale-colored eggs get deposited into the nests. Some of the nests can be shared by many female iguanas especially when the space is not large enough for them. An interesting fact about females green iguanas is that they do not watch their nests, they just pay a few visits. green iguanas are exotic fascinating pets which reminds us of one of greatest prehistoric animals – the dinosaurs.