A wildlife photographer in the Galápagos captured the moment an iguana did a seriously salty sneeze.
“Blowing snot rockets is something marine iguanas do best,” says Brooke Pyke on Instagram. In her video, an iguana is basking on a rock before, suddenly, spurting liquid from its nostrils.
“It’s also how they expel salt from their system after a big day of diving for food,” she adds.
Endemic to the Galápagos, marine iguanas are the only lizard that can forage at sea, according to the Galapagos Conservation Trust: “Due to the high concentration of salt in their diet, marine iguanas filter their blood at the nose and sneeze out the excess salt, often forming salt crystals on the snout.”
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Image and video credit: Brooke Pyke @brookepykephotography
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