What do these buggers taste like? I have heard they are pretty good -- and widely eaten in Central America as well. Preferred cooking method?

Tastes like chicken, really.

Do we have iguana in Australia??

Matt, I was thinking of the monitor/goanna family.

The local equivalent is the goanna (cf baobab and boab); dunno if the lizards are actually related except through The Serpent

Bill, I see now you beat me to the answer by four minutes.

Sambarman, somewhere I saw a film or a Youtube of a guy in Arnhemland carrying a slug of those lizards into camp, plopping them by the fire and asking his mates "How do you like your goanna?" At the time, I thought it was just an Australian pronunciation of iguana ...

Bill, I've never eaten one, but they were and still are (in more remote areas) a favourite food of the aboriginals.

In was hunting chital deer a couple of weeks ago and we had goannas, lace monitor to be correct, through our camp every couple of hours, they were pretty friendly. I would wake up on some days and there were tail drag marks under my bed.

Here's a couple of pics.

lace monitor

http://i20.photobucket.com/alb...3393_zpsd2e82807.jpg

lace monitor (Bells form)

http://i20.photobucket.com/alb...3412_zps65d8b3d0.jpg

Drag marks through the camp

http://i20.photobucket.com/alb...3401_zps98bbe2cb.jpg

Goannas of all species are cool, all monitor type lizards, no relation to iguanas. Unfortunately monitor species in the north (NT especially) have suffered with the spread of the poisonous cane toad... takes wuite a few years to start to recover populations. Same with other reptiles too - snakes, freshwater crocs, etc.

I did eat one many years ago - pretty good, just tasted like most reptiles do...

Interesting thing about goannas is biologists have found that they actually have poison in their saliva.... nasty bite!!

John, beautiful critters all right. Thanks for the photos. If I were to eat one, I'd probably try to save the skin for backing a self bow.

No can do Bill. Only aborigionals can kill them for food here. Totally protected.

I've only ever seen a couple in Victoria but noticed they were very good tree climbers. I understand goanna oil is very good medicinally, even better than snake oil

quote:

Originally posted by sambarman338:
I've only ever seen a couple in Victoria but noticed they were very good tree climbers. I understand goanna oil is very good medicinally, even better than snake oil

Nah, it's in a totally different class to snake oil - it actually works!

I've seen quite a few in Eastern Vic, from just east of the Thomson Dam. Including some really big roadkill ones, on the back road from Briagolong to Dargo.

Red spikey with a self serve specialist. Bob took the pic from a few feet away,the goanna wasn't concerned by his presence.

I've eaten Monitors in the Zambezi valley. Sort of a field expedient "curry" with rice. Not bad at all. When you're patrolling and hungry...well, those were what we like to call the "good-old-days".

The Cubans eat them all the time.

Last year in the local paper (Key West) there were a number of receipes.

Since you cannot kill ANYTHING in Key West (a "bird sanctuary") where Iguanas, Feral cats, and snakes are decimating what few birds we have.
Naturally the tree huggers believe a feral cat is as "valuable" as a red headed woodpecker.

Iguana are fast and we have both the green that eats vegitation, eggs and small prey and the Orange ones that are bigger and are a small version of a Komodo Dragon. Moniter Lizards are also starting to show up.

The only time they can be controlled (illegal) is when it is cold down here and they get lethtargic. People have been known to "gather them up" then and "relocate" them (about 5 miles offshore).

"Up Keys" on private land, they are a favorite target for high powered airguns and supressed 22 rimfires (legal in FL). When you get one in the open, running at warp speed, they are a lot of fun with a high cap supressed 10-22.

For eating, I'll stick with Yellowtails.

quote:

posted 09 February 2013 20:00Hide Post
Sambarman, somewhere I saw a film or a Youtube of a guy in Arnhemland carrying a slug of those lizards into camp, plopping them by the fire and asking his mates "How do you like your goanna?" At the time, I thought it was just an Australian pronunciation of iguana ...

Bill, that was just for show. As soon as the camera was off he asked his mate how many BigMacs he wanted him to pick up. .....And thats not as much a joke as you might think.

I dunno - I haven't seen any Big Macs in Arnhem Land - nor within nearly 200km of its inland border ... but I have seen a lot of reptiles being eaten from open fires.

My point being, it was a youtube video.... take it for what it's worth.

Matt,
I should say I mean no disrespect to the people who are trying to keep their traditions alive.
But... a youtube video useing a line straight out of crocodile dundee, makes me think of those staged tourist shit I'd seen on the gold coast.

no worries... I understand - I was just making a point!

For what its worth, for much of Arnhem Land - those activities are more than tradition but a way of life!!

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
... I thought it was just an Australian pronunciation of iguana ...

It is! When Europeans first "discovered" Australia, they saw all these honking big lizards running around, and assumed they were iguanas, with which they were already familiar. Eventually, it got shortened and distorted to "goanna"...don't forget, people talk kinda funny down there...eh?