As I was eating breakfast this morning, a few of the staff walked by with a wheel barrow full of fish. There was a very large barracuda amongst them. Her belly was swollen and full of eggs and she had huge, sharp, blood covered teeth. When I lifted her she must have weighed about 50 or 60 pounds. One big fish!
The wheel barrow was full of other unknown fish from which I took two scales and one scale from the barracuda. We watched all the lizards come in to stake their claim on the fish guts. One big lizard was the king. He whipped his tail at the smaller lizards and chased / bit any lizard that came too close. It was amazing to watch him try to swallow fish tails. He would take it in his mouth, get as far as the forked fin, struggle for a while and suddenly after one forceful gulp it would be gone.
The big lizard was aggressive with the humans as well. One whip from its tail would rip your leg open. One of the “boys” (Andy) was responsible for keeping the king lizard away. The lizard would swing his tail at him and then Andy would use a bamboo stick to force it away. The lizards move slowly until they are incensed and then they move incredibly fast. I think they must be an evolutionary relative to the Komodo Dragon.
Afterwards, I went to turtle beach and sat and listened to my walkman as tons of people showed up. Then I found a bamboo log and decided to try my hand at making some bamboo chimes. A police boat came to the island on a raid. They ended up taking 30 locals on suspicion of drug or other crimes but had no contact with the tourists.
0 comments on “The King Lizard”Add yours →