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Posted by IGUANA JOE on March 31, 2003 at 22:37:06:
Another little post from your fellow iguanid.
This time it ain't much of a debate or issue, just a little thought I wanted to share with ya.
Sooooo..... crocodilians are an iguana's best friend?
Maybe not in the same terrarium, but in the future...who knows.
As many of you know already, it has been found that crocodilians have in their blood a peptide (short chains of amino acids, short proteins) that seem to act as powerful antibiotics. This is known as crocodillin.
Crocs take all kinds of abuse in the wild (and in captivity, if housed with others). Some suffer horrible wounds, or even amputations. Yet in their bacteria-infested murky waters, they seems to thrive like happy campers.
Shift to our iguanas. One ripped toe, rubbed-to-the-bone nose, hot burn or bloody injury, and we run to the vet weeping in fear that "Iggy-Sue" will get an infection and possibly become sick or end up underground.
We care for them like children, because these tail-whippin fellas with an attitude are not as tough and hardy as the large crocs. Because if left untreated, certain wounds can definately become life-threatning.
The crocodilians, on the other hand, as long as they're fed properly, kept warm with proper light (usually natural light) and clean they can out-live their keepers. This is the pet u get with millions of years of evolution and survival on its resume.
This is also where the protein comes in this short argument. Immagine in the near future, if this crocodillin will be offered as an antibiotic to cure our scaly lizards of serious injuries. Heck, it would be even more awsome if it can be somehow be "turned" into a supplement (daily, weekly, monthly) so that our iguanids, agamids, etc... become almost "bullett-proof" like the crocs.
A lot of research is going on with this protein to see if it can be used to cure humans of bacteria infections. It can become useful for burned victims, soldiers on the battlefield who suffered a loss of a limb, or our very own beloved pets.
A similar research is going on with Komodo's.
Wouldn't it be nice if this thing would be available to us and our pets someday?
Say Jiffy, were u able to copy my e-mail address last night? Could u send me urs? I gotta couple of questions on ur cycluras and cyc's in general. Thanx.
-IJ
