MISSING pets come in all shapes and sizes… but it’s fair to say you probably wouldn’t forget a 4ft-long red lizard if you saw it roaming the Island.
The alarm was raised by David Proctor when he discovered that Big Red, his pet “red tegu”, was missing from his home in St Lawrence.
A picture of the striking reptile, bearing a passing resemblance to a jowly pink crocodile, sparked alarm on social media among those Islanders unaware of a red tegu’s true colours.
Fortunately Mr Proctor was able to put people’s minds at rest quickly: not only was Big Red a docile creature, but he had been found safe and sound on Saturday afternoon, within 24 hours of going missing.
“He’s pretty slow and docile, and usually he goes outside to sunbathe and then comes back in when he’s ready, but on Friday he disappeared and we couldn’t find him.
“He wouldn’t have hurt anyone, but I wanted to warn people in case he’d got out and was spotted – he could have given someone a heart attack!
“In the end my lodger found him – he’d crept under the decking and came out on Saturday, so I could let people know he wasn’t missing any longer.”
Mr Proctor, who has kept many lizards and formerly ran a reptile business called Tails and Scales, said he had acquired Big Red as a four-year-old in 2020, and that he had grown to around five feet in length before losing part of his tail and “shrinking” to about 4ft 6ins.
Big Red appeared none the worse for his ordeal, if indeed he was even aware that he’d briefly gone viral after news of his disappearance was shared online. Cooler temperatures have meant a less active spell in recent days, Mr Proctor said, and the lazin’ lizard will soon be settling down for his annual period of brumation: a process similar to hibernation which sees a reptile bury itself and effectively “shut down” for up to seven months before warmer temperatures cause it to stir.
Big Red’s brumation is likely to last until next spring.
