of the iguana family. It is the largest of the West Indian rock iguanas,
one of the most endangered groups of lizards. This herbivorous species
with red eyes, a thick tail, and spiked jowls is one of the largest
lizards in the Caribbean. The Cuban iguana is distributed throughout the
rocky southern coastal areas of mainland Cuba and its surrounding islets
with a feral population thriving on Isla Magueyes, Puerto Rico. It is
also found on the Cayman Islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, where
a separate subspecies occurs. Females guard their nest sites and often
nest in sites excavated by Cuban crocodiles. As a defense measure, the
Cuban iguana often makes its home within or near prickly-pear cacti.
Although the wild population is in decline because of predation by feral
animals and habitat loss caused by human agricultural development, its
numbers have been bolstered as a result of captive-breeding and other
conservation programs. Cyclura nubila has been used to study evolution
and animal communication, and its captive-breeding program has been a
model for other endangered lizards in the Caribbean.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclura_nubila>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1745:
Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at
Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands to begin the Second Jacobite
Rising.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobite_rising_of_1745>
1895:
American outlaw and folk hero John Wesley Hardin was shot dead
by an off-duty lawman in El Paso, Texas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hardin>
1953:
The intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United
States orchestrated a coup d'état of Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad
Mosaddegh and restored the absolute monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1960:
Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka began to orbit the Earth
aboard the Korabl-Sputnik-2 spacecraft.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_dogs>
2005:
Thunderstorms in southern Ontario, Canada, spawned at least
three tornadoes that caused over C$500 million in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ontario_Tornado_Outbreak_of_2005>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
clemency:
1. The gentle or kind exercise of power; leniency, mercy; compassion in
judging or punishing.
2. (now rare) Mildness of weather.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/clemency>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Peace is never long preserved by weight of metal or by an
armament race. Peace can be made tranquil and secure only by
understanding and agreement fortified by sanctions. We must embrace
international cooperation or international disintegration. Science has
taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good
instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of
human dignity. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of
physics.
--Bernard Baruch
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernard_Baruch>
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