Letter from the Desert: Iguana glut
I walked the dogs yesterday, heading with each of them in turn around the block in the neighborhood as I usually do when I have a few minutes in mid-morning.
I could walk them both at the same time, which is what each of them would prefer, but each would need his or her own leash, given the difference in neck altitude. Considering the propensity for the taller one to walk over the shorter one, and for the shorter one to respond by walking underneath the taller one, and with each of them doubling back in unpredictable loops to follow through on one olfactory double-take or another, walking both dogs at the same time becomes topologically complex. Knot theory tells us that a knot is a circle embedded in a three-dimensional Euclidean space, and despite the fact that I was once a highly advanced student of mathematics, in that by the time I was 15 I had flunked calculus twice, having both dogs on leash at once quickly becomes more complex a problem than I have the tools to sort out.
Alexander the Great is often said to have solved the “unsolvable” Gordian Knot by drawing his sword and cleaving the thing in two. I do Alexander one better by cutting the knot in two before it is tied.
Where was I? Oh, right. The dogs.
So last year’s rains became this spring’s flowers, which are now largely become a bumper crop of desert iguanas. Dipsosaurus dorsalis is about my favorite local reptile, despite the fact that they ate every last bit of the first vegetable garden I planted during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, I got to know a few of the iguanas in the old neighborhood by picking blossoms off the nearby creosotes or desert willows and lobbing them toward the iguanas, who would usually run toward them hungrily. Iguanas’ diets often run heavily toward creosote blossoms; I imagine that the flowers of cultivated desert willows must be especially appealing to the little beasts due to their usual rarity away from dry washes. We plant desert willows away from washes and water them and selectively breed somewhat larger and more colorful flowers, and so I imagine the iguanas cannot be blamed for chasing past a cresosote blossom to reach a proffered desert willow.
Given that my sample size is smaller than three, however, I could be making all of that up.
Regardless: a bumper crop of iguanas in the neighborhood this year. Heart, the 10-year-old pitbull, has never been much interested in herpetology. I have seen iguanas and other lizards challenge her bravely as she walks past, and she keeps going, so clearly that works for them. She is a relatively mild-mannered dog as regards other wildlife as well. In the old neighborhood cottontails would look up in alarm as she approached, then recognize her, and return to browsing unconcerned.
Jack, on the other hand, likely spent much of his first three years feeding himself on whatever wildlife was incautious enough to wander past. I am reasonably certain that included the occasional coyote. His prey drive is extremely strong.
So yesterday, during Heart’s circuit of the block, I was not made particularly aware of the fact that there was a desert iguana killing time about every meter or two along the way. But ten minutes later, the walk with Jack was substantially more iguana-rich.
Jack is 110 pounds or so of muscle and sinew and bone. He is a very good dog most of the time. That strong prey drive, however, introduces complications. when flushed from beneath a shrub, a desert iguana can put on a respactable display of speed. As does Jack in pursuit. I, despite weighing in at fully 1.5 Jacks, have trouble immovably objecting to the process.
He really does want to be a good dog, however. After the first three or four lunges iguana-ward, he seemed to get the idea that his behavior was not making me happy. He consented for the next block to merely observe the delicious-looking lizards as they dove for the nearest bursage, cocking his head rather adorably.
Ecologically speaking, I probably shouldn’t have worried overmuch. I do not exaggerate when I tell you that in our mile of walking we saw at least several hundred iguanas, some of them as much as seven inches snout to tail. That population is certain to be whittled down sufficiently. If all of them grew to maturity, the neighborhood would run out of creosote.
A bit of podcast news:
90 Miles from Needles is now listenable on YouTube. I suspect this will be more amenable to some than firing up a podcast app of some kind. It will certainly make it easier to share an episode you like on certain social media outlets.
Secondly, we at the Desert Advocacy Media Network are embarking on a bit of strategic fundraising to make sure we can continue to put out 90 MFN. The next issue of Letters From the Desert will be a fundraising appeal for said strategic campaign. This will not become a regular occurrence, but there are a couple thousand people subscribed here that seem to like my work, so it seemed sensible to at least send an appeal your way once. If you’d rather beat the rush and donate sooner than the appeal, you can do so here.
Letters From the Desert is a project of the nonprofit Desert Advocacy Media Network. D.A.M.N. also produces the 90 Miles from Needles desert protection podcast, and the 90 Miles from Needles email newsletter.