Extended cold snap could kill invasive iguanas

[RockaFowler]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/extended-cold-snap-could-kill-invasive-iguanas-162892.html

With this week's evening temperatures falling toward the upper 30s, strange fruit may drop from South Florida trees: non-native, invading iguanas that many residents consider more pest than pet.

"It's a big deal for me," Jessica Morgan, a Margate homeowner, said as she watched a yard-long, bright orange male iguana roam near her butterfly habitat. The reptile has a slightly smaller green girlfriend.

"They climb up on the bank and will poop on my dock," she said. "Fingers crossed that this cold snap will kill them. I don't have the heart to beat one to death. I hope the weather does it for me."

Iguanas become immobilized when the temperature drops into the 40s, as it did Sunday night, said Tiffany Snow, nuisance-wildlife biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. While they usually revive when the temperature rises, they could die if it remains below 40 degrees for three days or so, she said.



The reason why we have so many iguanas in South Florida is because people bought the animals and when they were too big they let them go.

[LeftyMom]

1. My Dad adopted an iguana who was found in a public park and turned in to animal control.

Presumably he was an escaped pet, it isn't warm enough here in the winters for one to last long. Anyhow, Mr. Frosty has a home now. How sad that people are waiting for those poor iguanas to die painfully, instead of trying to help find them someplace safe to live.

[Gold Metal Flake]

13. They are an invasive species.

It's not a few around a house. There are thousands and they are growing. They along with the non-native brown anole are destroying by predation and competition the native green anole. I am not concerned with dead iguanas since they are doing well in their native home. I'm pulling for the poor green anoles. Go, cold, go!

[LeftyMom]

20. Humans took on responsibility for them when they moved them out of their native habitat.

They deserve better than abandonment and death by exposure.

[Gold Metal Flake]

21. OK, Catcher. I hope you got some hip boots.

[LeftyMom]

23. I know perfectly well loose iguanas can be caught and brought back into homes.

I've seen the living proof. I've fed the living proof a whole lot of salad greens, for that matter.

Waiting for these animals to die of exposure instead of showing some responsibility for them is absolutely horrid, and I'm dismayed, if not shocked, that people are taking this attitude. These animals are loose in the wild because of human irresponsibility, and rather than correcting that situation with responsible action, people instead offer them death after callous neglect. It's ghastly.

[Gold Metal Flake]

25. You can't catch them all.

It's nice to think that every iguana that is in thermal shock is within easy reach but they are not. So for evey iguana seen in Florida, healthy or in shock, there are thousands unseen eating the natural, native fauna.

I respect native species in their native habitat first. Invasive species should be eradicated. Humans should work to reverse their ecological mistakes. If nature can help, so much the better.

Now, I can see where a responsible animal caregiver can recapture some of these animals and give them good homes until their time runs out, but they should not let them breed or escape and I doubt that they can care for all that they find. Pet breeding should stop. Just stop all pet breeding. Dogs, cats, rodents, birds, fish, reptiles, livestock. When the pounds are empty for a decade, then we can reconsider breeding for pets. Exotic pets should be immediately outlawed. It has gotten way out of hand.

[LeftyMom]

26. Igs are herbivores.

They'll engage in some limited insectivory if pressed for calories, but they're definitely not "eating the local fauna."

I don't disagree with you at all about pet breeding. But these igs already exist, they exist because of human action and therefore they deserve care. Leaving them to freeze to death makes about as much sense, and is every bit as heartless, as letting lost dogs get hit by cars or feral cats starve.

[dysfunctional press]

28. freezing to death probably wouldn't be all that painful for a cold-blooded reptile.

i've heard people say that it isn't all that painful for humans either- more like drifting off to sleep and not waking up.

[thunder rising]

2. I've got (well me and my neighbors) have 3 that hang out in the mangroves. I like 'em

All 3 are 3 ft or larger. If they would get big enough to chase raccoons, they would really have a purpose.

"They climb up on the bank and will poop on my dock," That's south Florida for you, whine about anything. It's like, a dock, hose it off.

[roguevalley]

3. I like reptiles. :)

[FLAprogressive]

4. would be nice if it killed the invasive boa constrictors too

[GoCubsGo]

15. And the pythons

The pythons do far worse damage than the iguanas.

[liberal N proud]

5. What has the environmental impact been?

[quaker bill]

8. Ugly

Native habitats are over run with exotic plants and animals to the extent of utter ecosystem replacement in 10's to 100's of thousands of acres. It is so far out of control that human intervention to stop it is no longer a viable option. Only hard freezes will have any hope of working to reverse the trend.

It was a habitat where fire, freeze, flood, drought, and low nutrient availability managed the land naturally. Many of the successful exotics are quite well adapted to everything but freezing weather.

[thunder rising]

10. 'scuse me, I have to call BS

Your statement reflects a generality that encompasses all non-native plants and animals. The fact that iguanas are vulnerable to cold weather is precisely the check that keeps them in control.


Iguanas are cool. Unlike fire ants (that killed off the quail population) and the Brazilian Pepper trees that are impossible to kill. As far as I can tell even the Everglades pythons have a natural enemy in alligators.

So please state your case as it pertains to iguanas.

[GoCubsGo]

16. Not BS

Read this: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/sciencestories/2009/iguana.htm

Iguanas may be "cool", but they eat EVERYTHING, including native rodents, reptiles, birds, bats and eggs. As for alligators being a "natural" enemy, you think so?: http://miami.metblogs.com/2007/07/27/pythons/

[thunder rising]

19. So the python wins one, there are plenty of encounters that went the other way

&cap=An+American+alligator+and+a+Burmese+python+locked+in+battle+in+Everglades+National+Park.+This+python+appears+to+be+losing%2C+but+snakes+in+similar+situations+have+apparently+escaped+unharmed%2C+and+in+other+situations+pythons+have+eaten+alligators%2C+according+to+the+U.S.+Geological+Survey.+Credit%3A+Lori+Oberhofer%2C+National+Park+Service&title=

There is a great story with pictures of an encounter that I can't find quickly where the alligator wins.

[Quantess]

22. Invasive species are called that for a reason.

Their presence is not the end of the world, but they are not native there, and they may be displacing native species.

[quaker bill]

27. Once there were no Iguanas in FL.

Now there are many. If cold weather and predators were keeping them "in check", this would not be the case.

No need to take the word of a professional on this. BTW where did you complete your studies on the ecosystems of Florida?

A little advanced ecology / evolutionary biology I sort of picked up in grad school for your consideration:

Native species adapt to "niches" in the community ecology. Development of and to a niche is an interplay between the species and the community of plants and animals surrounding it. Non-native species disrupt this interplay as they were not subject to local selective forces in an evolutionary sense. Some profit from this massively and overpopulate, some fare poorly and extirpate. Iguanas are overpopulating, and by doing so are out competing native species for resources. How do I know this? It is actually quite simple, that they are overpopulating is sufficient evidence alone. Things in balance with the native habitat rarely overpopulate, particularly in the generally oligotrophic native communities of South Florida.

But then why consider the words of a well paid professional in such matters when "Iquanas are cool".

[quaker bill]

6. We need the occasional cold snap

so the invasion stays down south. You can keep the melaleuca, climbing fern, iguanas, boas, nile monitors, and pythons, thanks. If it gets cold enough to nail a bunch of them down there, even better. I will gladly sacrifice my winter tomato garden to the effort.

[RockaFowler]

14. You are correct

We don't have the iguana problem in Martin and St Lucie counties because it does get colder here. But boy did we have a problem with them when I lived in Palm Beach County. And another thing - some of them have salmonella. If they hit you with their tails, you are in a heck of trouble. My husband was trying to get rid of one in our backyard, and that bugger whipped that tail and created a gash in his arm. It was all infected. I was even more scared because I have mini-dachshunds. Those guys are fearless. Just as much as those darn iguanas.

Oh yeah and during Hurricane Frances in 2004, a few of them were lounging in our trees in the backyard. When we went outside after the storm, there they were still in the trees. Amazing.

[Quantess]

7. I'm surprised people don't eat them.

I hear they taste like chicken.

[quaker bill]

9. I hear some do eat them

but not often enough.

[thunder rising]

11. So does "tasty wheat". I am thinking of cooking raccoon, cause I hate to shoot an animals

but this way I could put it into perspective.

I put out rat traps that are too small to kill them, but slaps them silly and I baited a stainless steel huge fishing hook with Italian sausage and plugged it into the hot side of an electrical cord. Just to let you know, the raccoons got shocked and scampered off. Other than developing a distaste for Italian sausage I haven't detected any change in their behavior.

[Doremus]

17. What is the cause of your raccoon epidemic?

Between the coyotes, street traffic and sundry other perils, the raccoon population in this area is kept in check.

[thunder rising]

18. South FL, quite end of a street on a river and a state park 1/2 north (on the river)

The raccoons are just wandering off the reservation and getting into trouble.

They've turned my pool into an algae biogenerator that can withstand huge amounts of chlorine.

[malaise]

12. They do in South America

Guyanese love the meat.

[KillCapitalism]

24. Iguanas annoying them?

Move to International Falls, MN.

Problem solved! :scared: