Animal · Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico
Green iguana
Iguana iguana — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The green iguana is a large, tree-dwelling lizard with a spiny crest running down its back. It lives in tropical rainforests and along riverbanks across Central and South America.
Picture credit: Charles J. Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Bjoertvedt (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Charles J. Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the green iguana live?
Home: Tropical rainforests and riverbanks of Central and South America.
In the wild you find it in: Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 1.2–1.7 m long, including tail. It weighs about 4 kilograms. On the menu: plants.
The story behind it
Green iguanas spend most of their lives high in the rainforest canopy, basking in sunny spots to warm their cold-blooded bodies, and are excellent swimmers, able to drop from a branch straight into a river below to escape a predator without harm, sometimes falling more than 15 metres safely. If caught, an iguana can shed part of its tail to escape, and the tail will slowly grow back over time. Despite their fierce, dragon-like look, green iguanas are strict herbivores, eating leaves, flowers and fruit, and a special gland near their nose helps them get rid of extra salt from their plant-heavy diet. Males display to rivals and mates by bobbing their head and extending a large flap of skin under their chin called a dewlap. Green iguanas remain common across their range.
Find it on the globe
Green iguana is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Can green iguanas swim?
Yes, green iguanas are strong swimmers and often live near water. If threatened while up a tree, they can drop straight into a river below from a great height and swim away safely underwater.
What do green iguanas eat?
Green iguanas are herbivores that eat mainly leaves, flowers and fruit. Unlike many lizards, they do not eat insects or meat, relying entirely on plants for their diet throughout their life.
Why does a green iguana drop its tail?
A green iguana can voluntarily detach part of its tail when grabbed by a predator, wriggling loose while the tail keeps twitching to distract the attacker. The tail then slowly regrows over the following months.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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