Tegu attack in field; has anyon seen similar behav?

A #Tegu once attacked a co-worker of mine, while we were in Venezuela..anyone ever run across this? Story here http://bitly.com/Us8YFl

I don't know about teguixin, but T. merianae will "attack" sometimes when they're fat, slow and self conscious about it. A big fat adult who doesn't think it can run for cover fast enough will try and hold its ground and charge at who or what ever is bothering it.

From my limited experience adult Tegu's rarely puff up and posture [like Monitor lizards]. Young ones do, but not the adults. The adults will gape their jaws and/or charge.

Again, this is for merianae, I don't know if this really applies to teguixin.

What might have happened in the story provided is that the tegu, in the open, didn't think he or she could break it for cover fast enough before the guy might catch him, so he decided that fighting was his best bet for survival.

Originally Posted by QQQSSSI

I don't know about teguixin, but T. merianae will "attack" sometimes when they're fat, slow and self conscious about it. A big fat adult who doesn't think it can run for cover fast enough will try and hold its ground and charge at who or what ever is bothering it.

From my limited experience adult Tegu's rarely puff up and posture [like Monitor lizards]. Young ones do, but not the adults. The adults will gape their jaws and/or charge.

Again, this is for merianae, I don't know if this really applies to teguixin.

What might have happened in the story provided is that the tegu, in the open, didn't think he or she could break it for cover fast enough before the guy might catch him, so he decided that fighting was his best bet for survival.

Thanks for that input, much appreciated. Very interesting to hear your thoughts on heavy, slow individuals. i was considering something similar, and do see often that in exhibits (Bx Zoo) many will fight when they would likely run in the wild. , Habituation plays a role also, but still.

I recall a rhino iguana that was being medicated daily for a time. He ran for the first 3 days (large exhibit) but after that just charged us when we opened the door. Best regards, Frank