Natural History of the (Golden) Tegu

I decided to do a natural history blog of the Tegu for two reasons; the first reason being that we saw this reptile in class and it was pretty cool. Another being that my mother is from South America and that is where these guys are found. When I got home I showed my mother a picture of the lizard and ask her if she had ever seen one like it and sure enough she did. I am going to talk about the life history traits of Tegu’s, specifically the Gold Tegu above because that is the one that is more likely to be found in my mother’s country (Guyana).

The Gold Tegu belongs to the family Tiidae and its scientific name is Tupinambis teguixin. It can be as small as a foot and a half to about 3 feet in length. As stated before, it is primarily found in Northern South America (for those who don't know where Guyana is it is right along the coast, next door to Venezuela). As with many lizards, their habitat is one of open areas (forests). Unlike some lizards, Tegu’s dwell on the ground, however they can swim and climb trees. I didn’t witness this in class but Tegu’s are extremely agile. I was reading a blog online and this individual said that when he startled a Tegu it took off running on their hind legs at about 15 to 20 mph (http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83810)



Tegu’s are the second largest lizard in the world. Because Tegu's can get so big in size they are sometimes considered a nuisance in heavily populated areas. Along with size comes aggressiveness. Tegu's are known to bite if handled improperly. If you corner a Tegu, or if they feel threatened they will start clawing (mind you their claws are razor sharp) and whipping their tails back and forth. This can inflict quite a bit of pain (http://www.cityreptiles.com/tegu.html)

Something else that is pretty neat about Tegu’s is that miners will use them for food. In the Northwest District of my mother’s country, gold miners will catch Tegu's and curry them. We eat chicken curry all the time but I couldn’t imagine eating Tegu curry!