for about 20 minutes. I was sitting on the ground watching red sleep
(C was with yellow) and looked up to see one of the biggest hissing
cockroaches I had ever seen. This thing was a good 4 inches long, and
was not happy to be poked/captured/prodded. It hissed and hissed and
hissed at me. While getting up to go catch the cockroach, I looked
about 4 meters further back, and moving along in the leaves was what
looked like an iguana. I thought that was a bit odd, since Beza (and
Madagascar as a whole) doesn't have large iguanas. When I stood up I
realized that it was the biggest chameleon that I have ever seen! It
was giant. It's body was about 10-11 inches long and really wide. He
was a few shades of mottled brown, with a red underbelly and legs. It
also wasn't so happy to be picked up and he was able to get his claws
into me fairly well. I finally got hold of him by his neck and casque
so he couldn't bite or claw me. He flashed red for awhile and held
open his giant, bright yellow mouth while puffing himself up, but
eventually he calmed down enough so that I could get some pictures.
It was really cool to see two giant individuals of the animals I've
seen around, but apparently only junior versions of. It's been getting
warm lately, as in it's over 40 degrees C (105 Farenheit), so the
hidden creatures are starting to emerge little by little. This also
means that the giant centipedes and scorpions are also starting to
poke their heads out too, and I'm not looking forward to the rains
when they really make a showing. For the mean time we'll just have to
be content with lemur babies and giant chameleons.
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