Here is ONE positive of the cold! Cold-stunned iguanas! The animals get very slow or “freeze” when the temperatures drop below 50ºF.
This creates a great opportunity to collect this invasive species as they are very difficult to chase down when they are fully awake & definitely not the most pleasant to hold & catch.
Yesterday, sheriffs from the MCSO – Florida Keys assisted folks from the MyFWC Florida Fish and Wildlife to catch some of these sleeping lizards & as you can see, they are NOT small!
The iguana population has been slowly growing in Florida & spreading north. Once just something you’d see in South Florida, iguana sightings have spread north into Central & West Central Florida.Key Problems Caused by Wild Iguanas:
Property and Infrastructure Damage: Their extensive burrowing (up to 80 feet long) undermines sea walls, canal banks, sidewalks, and building foundations, leading to expensive repairs.
Landscaping Destruction: Iguanas eat through valuable landscaping, including shrubs, flowers, and foliage, as well as fruits like mangos, lychees, and berries.
Sanitation and Health Hazards: Iguana droppings are commonly found on docks, patios, and in swimming pools. They can carry and transmit Salmonella bacteria to humans, pets, and water sources.
Infrastructure Failure: They are a major cause of power outages in South Florida, as they climb on transformers and chew through cables.
Ecological Impact: As an invasive species, they threaten native wildlife by consuming the eggs of threatened birds and eating endangered native plants like the host plant of the Miami Blue butterfly.
Nuisance and Danger: While generally timid, they can bite, scratch, and whip with their tails if threatened or cornered.
Believe it or not alll of these Invasive Iguanas are alive!! The cold front here in Florida left them in a comatose state where they then began falling from the trees
Florida’s state record iguana isn’t just big, it’s huge! Andrew Morales’s 6 ft, 17lb iguana is a dinosaur in the modern world.
Wild scenes in South Florida… PILES of cold-stunned iguanas on the ground after falling from trees.
When temperatures dip into the low 40s, iguanas can become immobilized. Prolonged time in the 30s increases the risk of death for these cold-blooded reptiles.
Media is flooded lately with the igauna drop. As if, Florida couldn’t get any weirder.
Iguanas fall from trees in Florida as icy weather bites southern US
Then there is this PITA.
Guess how many iguanas were rounded up during the Florida cold snap?
During the recent freeze, thousands of green iguanas, a non-native invasive species, became cold-stunned. When temperatures drop, these tropical reptiles lose muscle control and literally fall out of trees. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission took advantage of the moment, allowing people to humanely collect and remove them without a permit.
The result? Over 5,000 invasive iguanas were turned in in a short window. That’s thousands fewer animals damaging native habitat, undermining seawalls, and competing with Florida’s native wildlife.
I also saw plenty of folks on Facebook saying they didn’t just turn iguanas in, they took them home and made tacos or some other delicious meal. Like it or not, that’s invasive species control paired with one of the oldest conservation principles there is: use the resource instead of wasting it.
But here’s the reality check. Even 5,000 iguanas is just a drop in the bucket. Estimates put Florida’s green iguana population at well over one million, with some estimates running several million statewide. That’s what unchecked invasive species really look like.
Aaron B. Futrell, Author|Owner, Delong Lures
An estimated 8,000 invasive green iguanas were removed from various Florida communities this week after a record-breaking freeze event that sent overnight temperatures down to the mid-30s for two nights in a row. On Wednesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife and Conservation Commission released official numbers for its iguana drop-off sites. All told, the five sites collected 5,195 dead or cold-stunned iguanas. The drop-off sites were in Marathon, Sunrise, Tequesta, Fort Myers and Lakeland.
An estimated 8,000 cold-stunned iguanas removed from parts of Florida
I would have expected more.