Talk:Green iguana

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The last photo, is not a green iguana? Or is it? This isnt a green Iguana? Its a Gecko.. PLease some on else help me out

Green iguanas "mildly venomous"??? I'd like to see the source of that one, considering that the animals have no glands from which to secrete venom. If the author of this means that they have bacteria in the mouth like Komodo Dragons and that this bacteria can cause skin irritation, I might agree. However, iguana iguana is not by definition "venomous". This should be removed at once.

FYI: The edit occurred on 2005-11-02 by a user with IP address 71.114.153.21.

The Green Iguana IS venomous, and any brief search of the internet would reveal this to you. A study by the University of Melbourne discovered that hundreds, perhaps over a thousand lizard species DO in fact produce venom, and the Green Iguana and the Eastern Bearded Dragon, two species popular as pets, are among them. Specifically, it appears that most members of the Iguanians and Anguimorphs produce venom. The key as to why this was overlooked for so long is that they do not produce venom in sufficient quanities to be of harm to the average human. Here's a source for you; run a search on any major search engine and you can find dozens more sources if you need further convincing. http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn8331.html As for the date that the information was added, the discovery was announced right about then. Just over a year ago. As such, I have re-added the information to the article. Toroca 18:53, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I thought people eat them. bleck. Its Mitternacht90 not logged in.

Is there a credible source on the 29 year age record for this? I had a vet that specilized in reptiles for years be astounded at my 13-year-old captive iguana, saying it's the oldest captive specimen he's heard of.

Madcat Mech????

Who the heck entered the line, they escape in their Madcat Mech??? First of all, a Madcat Mech is a fictional, walking tank from the Battletech universe, and I dont think an Iguana would know how to pilot one. Also, iguanas are the main cause of the destruction of the rainforest in Mongolia??? Mongolia is a mountainous region, last I heard, lots of mountain goats, but no reptiles. I am not an expert in herpetology but I THINK those two sentences are not right.

Oh gee, you think? It's called vandalism. It happens a lot in an open resource like this. Welcome to Wikipedia - glad you could make it. And thanks for the note about Madcat Mechs being fictional - I never would have guessed. Thank God for you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.223.180.110 (talk) 10:28, 3 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

I removed the Madcat Mech, as that's just fake, and I don't believe there are any rainforests in Mongolia, not to mention, I don't believe many iguanas live there. Lone Lobo 08:57, 17 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Iguana as a venomous animal????

That is a first for me. My friends mom had an Iguana, and even if it WAS venomous, I never knew it, it was one of the sweetest most docile, loving animals I have ever know. It LOVED to sit on my shoulder and loved it when I stroked its chin, these animals are NOT agressive, this Iguana that I mentioned always fell asleep from this stroking. Venomous, I think not —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ScottForster (talk • contribs) 04:16, 17 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Read my note above regarding the venom, posted three days before your comment here. It was a widely-reported discovery when it was first announced; I saw it on CNN, Yahoo, and others, and you can still find plenty of references to the discovery if you take the time to run a basic search or two. The source I posted before is still valid: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn8331.html An as I said before, while they ARE venomous, they're not dangerous to humans because the toxins are secreted in such minute amounts.

Furthermore, being poisonous has nothing whatsoever to do with an animal's temperament or aggressiveness. Tarantulas are more dangerous to humans than Iguanas are, from the venom perspective anyway, and I know people who have "tame" pet tarantulas that will sit contendedly in their hands or on their shoulders. I also know a man who has a pet rattlesnake that he's had since it hatched, and he's never been bitten, nor does the snake seem to have any fear or aggression toward him. It's as docile as the iguana you describe, but being docile doesn't mean it's not venomous. Toroca 23:42, 14 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Threatened?

The sidebar lists the Green Iguana as "least concern", yet in the body of the article it states that they are considered to be "threatened" because of their status as a throwaway pet. Can anyone shed some light on this? Other than the fact they are green and totally rule, I don't know anything about Iguanas. --206.223.180.110 10:30, 3 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Venomous

I reverted to the previous verion of the page to restore the information regarding Iguanas' recently discovered status as a venomous animal. According to the page history, on 22 March 2007, a user with the IP of 168.184.249.55 edited the page to remove the information about iguanas being venomous. The same user failed to remove the reference that was cited as the source of the information, and perusal of that source will show that they are, IN FACT, venomous. Just because they're not dangerous to the average human doesn't invalidate the fact that they DO produce venom. The very first sentence of the cited source CLEARLY states that they produce venom. I quote: "Monitor lizards – commonly kept as pets – and iguanas produce venom, according to surprising new research that is rewriting the story of lizard and snake evolution." Read it for yourself. It's only been known for a little over a year now, but it IS known. Toroca 03:42, 24 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've restored the venomous information. Again. I'm getting tired of doing so, as it is verified fact relevant to this species and with a reference source provided and others easily locatable on the internet. The person who removed the info this time didn't even do a good job of it; they left a hack-job of a sentence behind instead.Toroca 02:54, 29 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]