“This specimen is a black and white tegu lizard (Salvator merianae formerly Tupinambis merianae), a species that exhibits a marked circannual cycle of activity that is reflected in their thermal biology. During spring and summer, tegus are active and warm themselves by basking in the sun, retreating to their burrows at night. During most of the autumn and winter, animals retreat completely into burrows where they hibernate without feeding and with minimal activity during the whole season with body temperatures equal to that of the shelter. These lizards can use thermogenesis to sustain an elevated body temperature throughout the reproductive season indicating that ectotherms the size of the earliest mammals are able to engage in a form of reproductive endothermy that may represent the first steps in the evolution of true endothermy.

This specific tegu arrived in Vancouver as a 10 gram baby shortly after hatch. I brought it back from Brazil where colleagues have a breeding colony. It was raised here and as you can see grew prodigiously. If handled regularly they are very tame. If not they can be very nasty. Judging by the jowls, this one was a male and I believe it had been nick-named Marlon after Marlon Brando.”

Dr. William K. Milsom, Professor in the Department of Zoology at UBC.