Fruit and veg shop owner finds stowaway LIZARD in bunch of bananas bought from Yorkshire market
A startled shopkeeper discovered an exotic reptile hiding in the fruit he'd bought to stock his shelves with.
The man, who owns a grocery store in Keighley, found the creature in a bunch of bananas he purchased from a stall on Bradford Market.
The stowaway has now been identified as a three-inch whiptail lizard, which are native to the Americas.
He spotted the brown, patterned reptile in his van on the way home from the market and called the RSPCA, who sent animal collection officer Shannon McGrath to retrieve the reptile.
It is now been cared for by staff at specialist pet shop Reptilia, in Ossett.
“He spotted the lizard in a bunch of bananas and said she was quite feisty and was trying to escape. He managed to confine the lizard in a tub before calling us and I took her to a specialist reptile centre.”
Whiptail lizards are the smallest members of the family Teiidae and are active foragers during the day. They feed on insects and other arthropods, which they dig out of leaf litter or under vegetation.
The RSPCA receives a lot of calls from people who have found spiders, lizards and other exotic animals that have stowed away in deliveries or in suitcases.