Page 10 - IAV Digital Magazine #442

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
It's So Cold In Florida, Iguanas Are Falling From Trees
Jennifer Kay, Associated Press
It's so cold in Florida that iguanas are falling from their perches in sub- urban trees.
Temperatures dipped below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) early Thursday in parts of South Florida, accord- ing to the National Weather Service
in Miami.
That's chilly enough to immobilize green iguanas common in Miami's sub- urbs.
Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino tweeted a pho- tograph of an iguana lying belly-up next to his swimming pool. WPEC-TV posted images of an iguana on its back on a Palm Beach
County road.
The cold-blood- ed creatures native to Central and South America start to get sluggish when tempera- tures fall below 50 degrees (10 degrees Celsius), said Kristen Sommers, who oversees the nonnative fish and wildlife pro- gram for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
If temperatures drop below that, iguanas freeze up. "It's too cold for them to move," Sommers said.
They're not the only reptiles stunned by this week's cold snap: Sea tur- tles also stiffen up when tem- peratures fall. The wildlife commission's biologists have been rescuing cold-stunned sea turtles found floating listlessly on the water or near shore, but no such rescue is planned for iguanas.
Well-meaning residents finding stiffened igua- nas are advised to leave them alone, as they may feel threat- ened and bite once they warm up.
"Don't assume that they're dead,"
Sommers said.
Green iguanas are an invasive species in Florida known for eating through land- scaping and dig- ging burrows that undermine infrastructure. They can grow over 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, and their drop- pings can be a potential source of salmonella bacteria, which causes food poi- soning.
The wildlife commission has begun holding workshops to train homeown- ers and property managers to trap or manage iguanas. The reptiles may be easier to catch this week, Sommers said.
"This provides an opportunity to capture some, but I'm not sure it's going to be cold enough for long enough to make
enough of a dif- ference," she said. "In most cases, they're going to warm back up and move around again, unless they're eutha- nized."
A two-week cold snap with tem- peratures below 40 degrees (5 degrees Celsius) in 2010 killed off many iguanas, along with Burmese pythons and other invasive pests that thrive in South Florida's sub- tropical climate. Those popula- tions have since rebounded.
Elsewhere in Florida, the effects of a bru- tal winter storm rolling up the East Coast were less exotic. It snowed briefly Wednesday in the state's capi- tal, Tallahassee, for the first time in 28 years.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine