A tiny green lizard is now the class mascot of a central New Jersey elementary school science class after a kindergarten student found it in a bundle of chilled salad greens where it had resided for days.
The three-inch anole lizard went unnoticed, becoming cold and lifeless after being confined in the refrigerator in Princeton, N.J., before Sally Mabon and her daughter Faye found it while unwrapping a bunch of tatsoi, an Asian leaf, that was purchased from Whole Earth Center, according to Reuters.
Faye brought the reptile to Riverside Elementary School where it quickly gained popularity among students, who named it "Green Fruit Loop," and became the mascot for science teacher Mark Eastburn's class.
"Interesting things can happen when you're working as a science teacher," Eastburn said, according to True Jersey. "We set up a little cage for it. It really came back amazingly well."
"It probably has some moderate adaptation to the cold which is why it made it through," he added.
Though the discovery grossed-out some of his fellow teachers who now fear the possibility that a lizard could be lurking in their salad, Eastburn said that the event can teach them two primary lessons: First, that organic food is safe for animals of even the smallest size, and second, that during cold months fresh fruits and vegetables need to come from warmer regions.
Mike Atkinson, the Whole Earth Center's produce manager, said that though greens are cleaned as they're stocked, it must have tucked itself away in the leaf.
"I've been in produce for 17 years and I've never heard of a lizard making it to the customer," Atkinson said, according to the Associated Press.
Despite his surprise, he noted that the lizard's survival is a testament to organic food, which is typically grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
"It might normally surprise or freak out conventional shoppers, but the majority of organic shoppers realize that produce is grown on a farm and there's lots of bugs and animals that live on a farm too," he added.
