You can see their attack strategy revealed in this sequence of photos. Sure, there are only eight or ten at this point, and they seem disinterested in the humans standing innocently on the patio. They're keeping their distance and there is no sign of aggression. Even at the time of the second photo, the only indication things might take a turn for the worse are that your esteemed photographer took a step forward without looking and startled the biggest freaking iguana I have seen outside a zoo, at least four feet long just in the torso, a tail stretching out at least another two feet, and looking like it weighed twenty or more pounds. He went streaking across my foot, and by the time I recovered, for photo three, the coatis had launched the first wave of the attack. Now there were close to two dozen already in the yard and at least ten more climbing the fence, and I was running out of bread. It's rare that I recall any words of wisdom from my parents - a fact in startling contrast to what my own daughters must go through every day, remembering dozens of extraordinarily sage sayings and bons mots I offered throughout their childhood, oftentimes despite their best efforts to put those years far beyond the reach of conscious memory - and yet, for a moment, as I noticed that coatis have very sharp teeth and very sharp claws and were already within pouncing range, I vaguely recalled my parents saying something like, 'You shouldn't feed wild animals up close. Remember what happened with the crocodile.'
