Photograph by Kate Olsen
SPECIES: Green Iguana
AGE: Ozzy is about 12 years old. Iguanas can live up to 20 years in captivity.
DIET: Iguanas are herbivores. Ozzy daily eats a mixture of high-quality lettuce and other vegtables and sometimes a little bit of fruit.
ENVIRONMENT: In the wild, they live in the canopies of rain forests. At UW-P, Ozzy lives in a 6-by-3-by-4 foot cage with a heat lamp and a branch he can climb on.
SIZE: Ozzy is 3 feet long. In the wild, iguanas can grow up to 6.6 feet long.
MOOD: “He’s not mean, I don’t think, but he’s not the friendliest either,” Stuckey said. “He will bite.”
Source: animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/green-iguana.html

Photograph by Kate Olsen
SPECIES: Boa Constrictor
AGE: About 15 years old. Average lifespan is 20-30 years in the wild.
DIET: Eats one rat every 2-3 weeks. The rats are killed before they are put into Honey’s cage because live rats encourage a strike reflex in Boa Constrictors, Nemec said.
ENVIRONMENT: Primarily live on dry land in hollow logs and abandoned animal burrows. On campus, Honey lives in 6-by-3-by-3 foot cage with a heat lamp and some rocks and logs.
SIZE: Honey is about 6 feet long. The largest boa constrictor ever recorded was 18 feet long.
MOOD: “He doesn’t get much interaction here,” Nemec said. “Not many people want to take him out and play with him.”
Source: animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/boa-constrictor.html

The biology mascots of Boebel Hall have lost a member.

For seven years, Ozzy the Iguana and Honey the Boa Constrictor have lived in a windowed room on the third floor. But this week, the snake was taken home by Bill Abott, a UW-Platteville student.

Honey was donated to UW-P about 13 years ago when his owner couldn’t take care of him anymore, Gloria Stuckey, biology department laboratory manager, said. Though he was taken into classrooms occasionally, the reptiles were never really used on campus.

Ozzy has been living at UW-P since spring of 2001, Stuckey said. He formerly belonged to the son of a Platteville couple who figured he’d have a better home on campus.

“We’d like to see him in a better place if there’s one available,” Stuckey said. “I’d hesitate to just turn him over to a student.”

Ozzy doesn’t seem to mind the attention from people walking past his window.

“I think if Ozzy didn’t have people walking past he’d be rather bored,” Caitlynn Nemec, senior biology major, said. “He likes the attention.”

The biology department would turn him over to an animal sanctuary if there was one interested.

“If they find him a sanctuary, it’d be nice,” Nemec said. “He’d have more space.”

Nemec has been the animal caretaker for the biology department for about three years. She spends about 30 minutes every weekday feeding, cleaning, and caring for the animals. She also takes care of the other residents of the third floor: rats, to feed the snake with; mice, used for the animal tissue culture class; and some Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, which are used to examine their anatomy.

“They actually do hiss rather loudly if you touch them,” Nemec said. The insects eat fruits, vegetables and cat food for a little protein.

Nemec graduates in May, and said she will miss taking care of Ozzy.

“It’s like he’s my own pet,” Nemec said. “I worry about him.”