One of the first wildlife spottings we enjoyed in Costa Rica was on the boat cruising towards the Caribbean coast. It was of this lovely green lizard, sunning itself on a tree limb on the bank of the river. It’s a green basilisk lizard, which grows to almost a meter in length. They are quite commonly seen in the jungle, but rarely posed quite as well as this one did.
The male has three sail-like crests, one each on the head, back and tail. They typically sit quietly for a long time, hoping you’ve not spotted them, before rapidly disappearing into the undergrowth.
These females are characterized by much smaller crests.
Basilisks are sometimes known as the “Jesus Christ lizard” because they have the ability to run on water for some distance, without sinking. Unfortunately we did not observe this behavior.
