Falling Iguanas? Weather Service Issues Warning as Temperatures Drop
Snow. Rain. Sleet. Hail. There are a lot of forms water can take as it falls from the sky, and people generally come to expect it.
But Florida has a very different type of precipitation that is so unique, sometimes even the locals are surprised: Reptiles.
Yes, reptiles. Lizards. Green iguanas, to be specific. These critters, while not native to Florida, started appearing after presumably being released into the wild, and since then they’ve gotten very comfortable with Floridians and the Florida lifestyle.
“They are in paradise,” Frank Mazzotti, reptile expert and University of Florida wildlife biologist, told the Miami Herald. “Their populations are growing and their range is also expanding.”
While they’re striking creatures and a bit of a tourist attraction, they cause problems with their out-of-control numbers.
They’re not particularly aggressive and they eat mostly vegetation and some species of birds’ eggs, but they still cause problems with their burrowing — enough that at one point the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission asked residents to kill them when they could.
“A lot of people have mixed feelings about iguanas because they are cool animals: they look exotic with their beautiful colors and aren’t dangerous,” trapper Brian Wood told the Herald. “People have a hard time treating them as the pests they really are.”
But once the temperatures fall from balmy norms to below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the iguanas struggle to stay upright and will literally begin falling to the Earth from wherever they’re perched.
If the temperatures dip into freezing for a few days, the iguanas struggle to survive, but anything between 32 and 50 degrees stuns the lizards into a lethargic state and they end up falling.
Because of this phenomenon, the National Weather Service of Miami-South Florida issued a special warning for the metro Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach area and Interior and Gulf Coast region on Tuesday: “Falling Iguanas Possible Tonight.”
Jan 21 – This isn’t something we usually forecast, but don’t be surprised if you see Iguanas falling from the trees tonight as lows drop into the 30s and 40s. Brrrr! #flwx #miami pic.twitter.com/rsbzNMgO01
— NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) January 21, 2020
“This isn’t something we usually forecast, but don’t be surprised if you see Iguanas falling from the trees tonight as lows drop into the 30s and 40s,” they wrote. “Brrrr!”
“Iguanas are cold blooded,” their tweet explained. “They slow down or become immobile when temps drop into the 40s. They may fall from trees, but they are not dead.”
It’s certainly a sight to behold: Large green lizards splayed out on the grass, looking quite dead to the casual passer-by. But they’re not. They’re just too cold to move.
The real problem is that people see the stunned lizards and feel bad for them, carrying them to warmer spots so they can revive.
That in itself isn’t the issue — the issue is that if they bring them into a car, their house or other confined space, when the iguana becomes mobile again, they can lash out.
Until the weather warms up again, residents would be wise to be careful when moving these reptiles and avoid standing under trees for too long.
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