Floridians gather frozen iguanas by armload as…
It’s raining reptiles!
Iguanas left just about paralyzed by Florida’s latest unseasonable cold snap are dropping like flies from trees, leaving people to scoop them up by the armload.
When temperatures plummet, the cold-blooded creatures develop into motionless, and in Florida, where upwards of 1 million iguanas are estimated to usually laze in the treetops, that means torrents of reptiles falling.
Jessica Kilgore has collected “hundreds of pounds worth” of briefly frozen iguanas. Lcoal10 News
“They’re like little bags of ice,” said Jessica Kilgore of the “nuisance animal removal service” Iguana Solutions as she hefted a 10-pound iguana in her arms.
Usually, Floridians are prohibited from handling the iguanas themselves, but this winter, the scenario is so extreme that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission determined to launch non permanent assortment websites across the panhandle.
Kilgore said she has hiked down the seashores in Hollywood, Fla., amassing “hundreds of pounds worth” of fallen iguanas.
She told Local 10 that the iced iguanas are so plentiful that people can “pick them up like easter eggs on the ground.”
She explained that the FWC will either switch the iguanas they obtain to an licensed out-of-state vendor or euthanize them but famous that Floridians aren’t compelled to give up the reptiles.
Temporarily incapacitated iguanas are falling from trees in Florida as temperatures plummet. Lcoal10 News
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission opened assortment websites across the panhandle. Local10 News
“If you want to allow him to defrost, go ahead and move him to the sun, and he’ll go ahead and scramble right up the trees,” she said.
“But if you want to help the environment and remove him, you need to call FWC and find a drop-off site and they’ll be able to take care of him humanely for you.”
Kilgore highlighted iguanas’ significance to “a lot of different cultures” that make delicacies out of every half of the reptiles, including its eggs.
“So this is easy snacks falling out of trees this morning,” she told the outlet.
The Sunshine State is home to swaths of invasive reptile species that had been largely launched to the panhandle through illicit pet trading, ranging from Burmese pythons to the Argentine giant tegu.
Florida’s authorities sponsors occasions aimed at tapering the python population bit by bit, including the annual Florida Python Challenge.
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