Extended cold could kill invasive iguanas
Dropping temperatures slow down lizards
Photo credit Bjørn Christian Tørrissen
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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.
Michael (23:24:31) :
“NO, Not the pythons too. That’s THREE species gone in one season. WHY DIDN’T WE LISTEN?”
Four, if you count Dave F.
Perhaps there is a very good reason why iguanas shouldn’t live in Florida.
They drive up real estate prices.
Jack in Oregon (19:25:14) :
“Its worse than we thought, its raining Iguana’s…”
I would prefer it were raining Menn…
Dear folks,
I’d like to take this opportunity to respectfully solicit your input for
a proposed peer-review monograph I’m planning titled:
101 Things to Do With A Dead Iguana.
I plan to use the most practical ideas as a basis for the study.
Many thanks in advance.
photon without a Higgs, I like that video. So now we can call Al Gore a witch?
Somewhere there is a PETA person who stopped by here to check on the climate change deniers, and clicked on this article to read about the plight of the helpless iguanas. Then they started reading these comments.
They are now convinced their worst fears have been realized, and we really are just a bunch of cold-hearted sons-of-unwed-mothers. They may also be violently ill, and forcefully expelling their tofu and bean sprouts.
FWIW, dear PETA person, these comments are not meant to be personal, nor are we in the employ of Big Oil, or Big Lizard. These comments are provided free of charge as a public service, in the ongoing quest to inform whomever wanders by of the true nature of reality.
And now that you have been informed about the pitiful iguanas, perhaps you could consider personally going to Florida and aiding in the rescue of these noble reptiles. Holding them close and sharing your body warmth should prove helpful. Oh, and while you’re at it, the gators look a bit chilled as well.
Good luck!
Saw a strange sight today while taking an early morning walk on a snowy common. Five dead wood pigeons lying on the frost crusted snow beneath one of their favourite roosting trees on the edge of the wood.
Cold must have got them, min -8.5 degrees C here last night (16F), with a steady breeze. I’m surprise this happened as I always thought pigeons were tough as old boots – on the bright side, at least my freezers now well stocked with pigeon crowns!
kadaka (22:44:32) :
Of the land-based critters, apparently most taste like chicken, while many of the rest taste like beef. Humans though taste like pork, according to those who have resorted to cannibalism to survive. (First heard that on a game show, then elsewhere after that.)
If you decide to tour New Guinea and your guide starts talking about “long pig” — run.
101 Things to Do With A Dead Iguana?
1. Barbecue it.
2. Bake it.
3. Fricassee it.
4. – 101. Repeat 1. through 3. as necessary.
ScottR (21:20:11) :
Thank you ScottR for taking the time to answer some questions I posted about AGW.
At this time it is hard for me to even imagine Global Warming as I am starting my car in a -18F wind chill and much colder to come in the next couple of days.
RealClimate has that December 2008 was somehow a warm one. I never can see how this is “Real”. They claim the Arctic is 10 degrees above normal. Huh? Then where is all this friggin’ cold air coming from that is 20 degrees below normal? How does it cool as it moves South?
I love science but I do hate any intentional distortion of it for any reason.
I want a Mann blimp to protect me from falling iguanas
“Norman (04:18:30) :
[…]
RealClimate has that December 2008 was somehow a warm one. I never can see how this is “Real”. They claim the Arctic is 10 degrees above normal. Huh? Then where is all this friggin’ cold air coming from that is 20 degrees below normal? How does it cool as it moves South?”
As the arctic air moves southwards, it EXPANDS because the globes circumference gets BIGGER the more you approach the EQUATOR. This means that it DECOMPRESSES and gets COLDER. Because the enrgy per liter air is DECREASING.
This is also why the poles are the hottest place on earth and the equator the coldest.
See stupid! Simple SCIENCE!
“wayne (21:26:22) :
[…]
I was rolling on the floor. The thought of cramming a manatee into my freezer, thinking, not enough room unless I remove the shelves, and all to be humane!!??”
Don’t forget to put it into a plastic bag first.
Those of you picking up pythons and yard-long iguanas like firewood must have awfully big fireplaces, freezers and plastic bags.
Here in Kansas, no iguanas or pythons, but the woodstove is cranked up and the wind chill is somewhere well below 0. At present what little of January we have had is averaging 20 degrees below normal. We might even set a new low temperature record here in the next day or so.
I also note that no one around here has mentioned global warming in the past few weeks!! Wonder why??
No you want to stack the frozen pythons and Iguanas under the front porch to dry out and season a bit before you put them in the fire place. If you do not properly dry them out they are very hard to light, and burn with a sooty flame.
Larry
How do you trap something that’s not moving?
R.S.Brown (00:48:20) :
“Dear folks,
I’d like to take this opportunity to respectfully solicit your input for
a proposed peer-review monograph I’m planning titled:
101 Things to Do With A Dead Iguana.
I plan to use the most practical ideas as a basis for the study.
Many thanks in advance.”
What, and you get all the grant money?
Bill Tuttle (03:28:14) :
“101 Things to Do With A Dead Iguana?
1. Barbecue it.
2. Bake it.
3. Fricassee it.
4. – 101. Repeat 1. through 3. as necessary.”
No, igburgers is way to do them. Just dumpem in the wood chipper, it’s fast and therefore humane.
I heard that some alligators are trapped under the ice in the Tallahassee area of Florida. Greenpeace is going to airlift 5 polar bears from the Hudson bay area of Canada and transport them with Al gores private jet to Florida to help break the ice and free them. My boys used to use fishing poles with fruit as bait, Mangos worked best. Iguanas fight hard use a wire leader. Taste like chicken,don’t let them bite you .
That would be a pity indeed!, Iguanas make me remember one oustanding IPCC leader.
To kill an iguana is an act of barbarity. They are beautiful, gentle creatures that are strictly vegetarian. It should be illegal to kill them, and anyone who does should go to jail.
Rick
in Florida
2SoonOld2LateSmart (22:05:42) :
“Around here we have a pine beetle infestation problem in some places.
A few days of -40C weather would take care of that problem.”
Nature is starting to clean up a few loose ends, the Iguanas, Pythons, other non-native life forms; are we next?
What bothers them much more: This unconvenient cold has frozen their Kool-aids
Rick (07:42:19) :
To kill an iguana is an act of barbarity. They are beautiful, gentle creatures that are strictly vegetarian. It should be illegal to kill them, and anyone who does should go to jail.
From the dreaded Wikipedia:
The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped animals and often depicted Green iguanas in their art.[38] The Green iguana and its relative the Black iguana (Ctenosaura similis) have been used as a food source in Central and South America for the past 7000 years.[4] It is possible that some of the populations in the Caribbean were translocated there from the mainland by various tribes as a food source.[4] In Central and South America, Green iguanas are still used as a source of meat and are often referred to as gallina de palo, “bamboo chicken” or “chicken of the tree,”[6] because they are said to taste like chicken.[39]
Gee Rick, looks like you have a real crusade on your hands. You could try getting the iguanas protected with the old Organization of American States, but for something on this scale perhaps you should go straight to the UN. Don’t forget to explain to them how Climate Change will decimate the iguanas’ habitats thus they need protection from the starving Climate Change refugees. The UN loves that sort of talk. After you are done there then the International Criminal Court can be contacted. Might as well, they need the work.
Good Luck!
Please note that everything goes well with Tabasco sauce. Try for a 30-minute buzz (burn?) to define the correct heat. That way it doesn’t matter if it tastes like chicken, beef or pork.