It\u2019s raining reptiles! <\/p>\n
Iguanas left virtually paralyzed by Florida\u2019s recent unseasonable cold snap are dropping like flies from trees, leaving people to scoop them up by the armload.<\/p>\n
When temperatures plummet, the cold-blooded creatures become immobile, and in Florida, where upwards of 1 million iguanas are estimated to typically laze in the treetops, that means torrents of reptiles falling<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jessica Kilgore has collected \u201chundreds of pounds worth\u201d of temporarily frozen iguanas. Lcoal10 News<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re like little bags of ice,\u201d said Jessica Kilgore of the \u201cnuisance animal removal service\u201d Iguana Solutions<\/a> as she hefted a 10-pound iguana in her arms.<\/p>\n Usually, Floridians are prohibited from handling the iguanas themselves, but this winter, the situation is so severe that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission decided to launch temporary collection sites across the panhandle.<\/p>\n Kilgore said she has hiked down the beaches in Hollywood, Fla., collecting \u201chundreds of pounds worth\u201d of fallen iguanas.<\/p>\n She told Local 10<\/a> that the iced iguanas are so plentiful that people can \u201cpick them up like easter eggs on the ground.\u201d <\/p>\n She explained that the FWC will either transfer the iguanas they receive to an licensed out-of-state seller or euthanize them but noted that Floridians aren\u2019t forced to surrender the reptiles.<\/p>\n Temporarily incapacitated iguanas are falling from trees in Florida as temperatures plummet. Lcoal10 News<\/p>\n The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission opened collection sites across the panhandle. Local10 News<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to allow him to defrost, go ahead and move him to the sun, and he\u2019ll go ahead and scramble right up the trees,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cBut if you want to help the environment and remove him, you need to call FWC and find a drop-off site and they\u2019ll be able to take care of him humanely for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Kilgore highlighted iguanas\u2019 importance to \u201ca lot of different cultures\u201d that make delicacies out of every part of the reptiles, including its eggs. <\/p>\n \u201cSo this is easy snacks falling out of trees this morning,\u201d she told the outlet.<\/p>\n The Sunshine State is home to swaths of invasive reptile species<\/a> that were largely introduced to the panhandle through illicit pet trading, ranging from Burmese pythons<\/a> to the Argentine giant tegu<\/a>. <\/p>\n Florida\u2019s government sponsors events aimed at tapering the python population<\/a> bit by bit, including the annual Florida Python Challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s raining reptiles! Iguanas left virtually paralyzed by Florida\u2019s recent unseasonable cold snap are dropping like flies from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":560034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[16922,723,3185,159,67,132,68,1154,39590,837,3159],"class_list":["post-560033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-euthanasia","tag-florida","tag-reptiles","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-weird-but-true","tag-wildlife","tag-winter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115998846015478629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}