Residents in the southern resort city of Pyatigorsk stumbled upon an "aggressive" meter-long iguana apparently waiting at a tram stop Tuesday, prompting a scare when the reptile charged at a team of rescuers who had been dispatched to catch it.
"It responds to the name Grisha, and it behaves very aggressively: opening its jaws threateningly, lunging at rescuers and even scaring a labrador puppy," a spokesperson for the city's administration was cited as saying by Interfax.
The reptile was apprehended and given its own room in the administration building, where staff turned on the heating to warm up the creature and fed it vegetables, the spokesperson told Interfax.
So far, no one has come forward to claim the iguana, but rescuers have their suspicions that Grisha is the same reptile they were called to rescue from a tree two years ago, the report said.
It was unclear whether the presumed young Grisha was also aggressive.
Rescuers have agreed to look after the iguana for three days, after which he will be given to the local zoo if no one comes forward to claim him.
