Extended cold could kill invasive iguanas
Dropping temperatures slow down lizards
Photo credit Bjørn Christian Tørrissen
This file is licensed under the
Creative Commons Official license
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.
It is legal to kill iguanas, but it must be done humanely. Among the options is decapitation. Some local animal control authorities will accept live iguanas that have been trapped, Snow said.
“If somebody is looking to trap them, I guess right now would be a good time because they’re not moving,” she said.
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Cold Killing AGW Crusaders
6 01 2010
Extended cold could kill invasive AGW Crusaders
Is it just me or are all species either extinct, endangered, or invasive?
Now if it only had a similar effect on politicians.
Had a five-footer drop out of a ficus here in Wellington at a polo stable this morning. The grooms were planning on eating him. Frost on the windshield but no ice on the water buckets.
let me know when al gore gets frost bite
We have huge problems with iguanas around our place. It’s fun to watch them stiffen up and fall over. They are picking them up like crazy. They kill them when they catch them …
What’s not so cool is the gulf is now 53F in SWFL, below the temperature that does significant kill damage to our fish, especially some of the prize gamefish.
Has anybody looked to see if the AGW hoax is still breathing?
Here in Australia we are advised to place cane toads into a plastic bag and then pop into the freezer to kill them humanely; this is called double-dipping (Freeze them humanely after they have suffocated in the plastic bag!).
This mann caused climate change is worse then we thought.:-p
9 iron
These guys too…
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k15/jmwhitmore/Manatees.jpg
Its worse than we thought, its raining Iguana’s…
There is no problem which cannot be solved by a suitable application of
high explosives. — William W. Hughes
Anthony, Global Cooling is also killing the Manatee!
Cold Stress Contributes To Record Number Manatee Deaths (WESH-TV Florida, January 6, 2010)
“biologists documented a record high of 56 cold stress-related deaths in 2009, more than double the five-year average.”
Manatee deaths hit record numbers (Miami Herald, January 6, 2010)
Manatees huddle for warmth (WPTV Florida, January 6, 2010)
Do global warming proponents want the Manatee to die?
The most humane way to kill them would be to put them in the freezer.
It’s pretty devastating to the citrus growers, but could this be a long-term boon? Wht are the chances that along with the iguanas this cold snap will reduce the invasive snake populations. Now THERE is a good example of a man-made problem. Much like the devastation that has been caused by invasive species in the Great Lakes.
deep solar minimum. pray the sunspots fire up again soon. i won’t be able to afford OJ if this cold keeps up.
And just think, if we are successful at reversing global warming, we can look forward to more of this kind of suffering!! AGW believers, is this what you want the future to hold?? I guess this is the type of doom and gloom that can be overlooked.
Guess where most of the manatees are during the winter, especially during exceptionally cold ones like this one? Yup. Lounging around in the warm water outflows of those Eeeevil coal-fired and nuclear power plants around the state.
Let’s hope that this Gore Effect puts quite a sizable dent in the non-indigenous reptile population throughout FL. Unfortunately, the nastiest ones we have around West-Central FL are black & white tegus that have adapted to colder environs and are waiting out the winter underground. 🙁
I love how you’ve attracted an ad for reptile enclosures.
Whoa! This is all wrong folks. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Warmers repeatedly tell us that WARM is a threat to biodiversity! Ergo COLD must be good for biodiversity. Any suggestion that cold is killing critters cannot be true. The iguanas and manatees are not really dead. They are asleep. ☺
Cue the Monty Python “dead parrot’ sketch: ☺
Killing is killing (as opposed to deliberately inflicting unnecessary pain). To refer to one way as “humane” and another way as not, is ridiculous. The only difference is in how much blood and gore is spread around, and that is only relevant to the living who may object to making a mess. It is irrelevant to whatever or whoever was killed. And no, I am not against killing. I’ve done my share of it.
Manatees dying at a record pace | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20091212/NEWS01/912120314/Manatees-dying-at-a-record-pace
Ooops. I see that while some comments were in the moderation queue, I went and jumped the gun and let the manatee out of the bag, so to speak. Please pardon my two-stepping on your manatees’ toes, Poptech.
Night of the Iguana…
2010 Version..
This cold snap here in Florida is going to have a significant impact on the price of fresh produce — not only because our local crops are being destroyed but also because the EPA’s turning off the water to the Fresno valley in California. The two major winter food producers are now off line for this winter. Importing food is going to do nothing for our balance of payments deficits, let alone our pocketbooks.