Now I know why

Captive care and husbandry.

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cachoron
Posts: 144
Joined: August 31st, 2011, 6:52 am
Location: Valle del Yaqui, Sonora

Now I know why

Post by cachoron »

As many of you may be aware, on November 2nd, Mexico celebrates a prehispanic tradition called Dia de Muertos. In that day, people goes to vist their ancestors at the cemetery. They take food and drinks that the death liked. Big party, were the cemeteries get crowded and colorful. One thing that is very associate with this celebration is a flower called Cempasuchil (Tagetes erecta marigold in the US) Flower used to be very yellow but, now there are some dark oranges.

Somehow , I believe that my youngest daughter brought from school, one flower of each color arrived home. So, I gave them to my Ctenosaura macrolopha . She devour the yellow one and I thought that she left the orange because she was full. But, days passed and she never ate that one.

I believe now I know why. I just read “Lizards, windows to the evolution of diversity” (Pianka & Vitt) and they say that even some Iguaninaes, such as Dipsosaurus dorsalis, Sauromalus obesus & Ctenosaura pectinata, can discriminate some food based on chemicals detection basically is not well develop on them as in other lizards. They don’t “smell” food. It’s been recorded that adults D. dorsalis in captivity has been record to eat mealworms (even they do not do it in the wild) that have a yellowish color; or even yellow plastic flagging tape!!! Yellow seems to create an elicit response based on that mostly of the flowers on the desert have that color.

Anyway, just wanted to share this
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KingCam
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Joined: April 11th, 2011, 1:03 pm

Re: Now I know why

Post by KingCam »

That's fascinating! Funny how selective some species can be while others will eat anything at the end of the shiny forceps :P
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justinm
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 5:26 am
Location: Illinois
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Re: Now I know why

Post by justinm »

That's a great book, that I think every herper should read.
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