Remember Mr. Nature discoursing on the chuckwalla? Some of you may not know what a chuckwalla is; but Mr. Nature grew up on Mark Trail in the Sunday color comics, so he knows. To see the lizard in action, click the link.
How is it that you can actually make friends with some being as different as a lizard? Well, maybe we’re not as different as we thought: the same God made us all.
Hi, Mr. Nature here–with a nice lizard that’s not really anywhere near as big as the camera makes it look.
This is the chuckwalla, of the American Southwest. It lives in the desert and defends itself by scrunching in between rocks and inflating itself, making it very, very hard to get him out. It’s a member of the iguana family, and a vegetarian. There are several species with assorted colors and markings; and like many iguanids, the chuckwalla can change its colors a little bit, depending on the temperature and his mood.
I remember these critters from the Mark Trail Sunday color comics in the paper. You could really learn a lot from that comic strip.
I expect a chuckwalla would make a very pleasing reptile pet, provided you were careful to keep him warm and dry enough. Desert lizards, alas, can be tricky to keep healthy. So it’s probably better to stick with more adaptable animals.
Behold the chuckwalla, a nice big lizard. The one in the video is enjoying a feast of chopped vegetables and cheeses that some thoughtful human provided him.
The chuckwalla lives in North America’s hottest deserts, where it eats bits of cactus. The chuckwalla is edible for human beings, a fact which has occasionally saved a life. When threatened, this lizard ducks into a crack in the rock and inflates himself, making it just about impossible to pull him out.
God creates the darnedest things. He creates them for His own pleasure. There aren’t enough people who get lost in the desert to justify the trouble of creating the chuckwalla. This lizard can be domesticated, but then you have the trouble of keeping him hot enough. Like most members of the iguana family, the chuckwalla is smart enough to adjust to you and become friendly with you.
No scientific committee would have ever conceived of a large, edible lizard whose primary defense is self-inflation. Science fiction writers never thought of it. For really cool ideas that no one else ever had, you have to go to God.
And this is Mr. Nature signing off… Enjoy your Sabbath rest, everybody.