"Florida" strain iguanas

ZEROPILOT

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I did see a Jackson's Chameleon crawling on a Powerline in Miami years ago.
Let me know if you find ANY population of old world lizards.
They're so cool!
 

Killerrookie

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Are you some sort of masochist? Why would you get a nile when there are so many others that are less aggressive?
Any animal can be taught to behave and get use to a human. Some breeders don't sell their monitors till they trained them to behave before selling them. It's interesting seeing them train them to act right.
 

Tom

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Any animal can be taught to behave and get use to a human. Some breeders don't sell their monitors till they trained them to behave before selling them. It's interesting seeing them train them to act right.

I'll believe that when I see it. I've raised to many monitors of too many species to believe that.

Let us know how it goes 6 months after you get your trained nile monitor. I'd love to be wrong and learn something new.
 

Killerrookie

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I'll believe that when I see it. I've raised to many monitors of too many species to believe that.

Let us know how it goes 6 months after you get your trained nile monitor. I'd love to be wrong and learn something new.
Deal!
 

Magni

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Sorry, I forgot to put this was in Honduras when I traveled through Central America 2 years ago:) They were everywhere
 

AnimalLady

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There are tons of iguanas by my job! I work off of Ockeechobee (sp?) in the Medley area. You can see at least 10-15 on any sunny day hanging out by the canal. There are these huge orange ones.....they freak me out.
 

AnimalLady

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ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1445309102.763655.jpg

And these Rainbow whiptails are all over my yard.

There are these fat curly tailed lizards at my job too. South Florida is so not the place to live when you have a lizard phobia, ugh.
 

Alaskamike

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Florida is inundated with tropical " pets" released or escaped. I've seen many in the 5 yrs I've lived here.

I think our worst freeze was in 2010 when it got down to 32f about 4 nights in a row.

Lizards were freezing and falling out of trees in parking lots to the pavement on the Gulf side where I live It was thought that freeze would eliminate the Burmese Pythons from the Everglades.

Didn't happen. They are recovering , and it is possible some are developing coping mechanisms for the occasional cold.

Here is a photo I saved of an 18' one several years back taken from the Everglades.
ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1445346383.050897.jpg
 

ZEROPILOT

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Did you notice when those iguanas died that nothing....I mean nothing would eat them? The carcasses were everywhere.
That cold snap also killed most of our peacock bass and introduced colorful Cichlid fishes.
 

AnimalLady

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Cichlids are a nuisance :\

My goodness look at the size of that snake. I think yearly they have volunteers hunt them.. wonder if they're still doing that? Those things are taking over. Stupid pet owners that decide its okay to just release this monster into the wild... not realizing the havoc it is causing to our ecosystem! People suck.

Ed,
Why do you think nothing would eat them? Are they that nasty?
 

Turtlepete

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Did you notice when those iguanas died that nothing....I mean nothing would eat them? The carcasses were everywhere.
That cold snap also killed most of our peacock bass and introduced colorful Cichlid fishes.

Talking about that cold snap 2-3 years ago? Even the vultures didn't seem to eat them. Dead iguanas everywhere. That was incredibly weird.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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The adaptation you are suggesting is more behavioral than physiological. They will learn how to seek out and use refugia that is less impacted by cold. Some physical traits like color may be linked to the behavioral selection.

This is sorta what happens with many species, their adaptation is lead by choices living individuals make, that are adopted by offspring by chance or behavioral selection. Strong selection based on aberrant physiology is more rare. First you need the aberrant physical attribute to exists at the right time.

Less random are many individuals seeking their own best way to cope. Those that select a best coping mechanism survive and carry forward whatever that mechanism is, along with associated physiological traits.

One great example relates to how beavers became nocturnal. Early natural history writers refer to beavers as day time animals, sleeping at night. But people hunted all the ones they could see, so those few with the aberrant habit of being nighttime beavers persisted better.

There are no doubt some of the animals out there in the glades that are also more cold tolerant too.
 

ZEROPILOT

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Cichlids are a nuisance :\

My goodness look at the size of that snake. I think yearly they have volunteers hunt them.. wonder if they're still doing that? Those things are taking over. Stupid pet owners that decide its okay to just release this monster into the wild... not realizing the havoc it is causing to our ecosystem! People suck.

Ed,
Why do you think nothing would eat them? Are they that nasty?
I just don't know. So many things will eat them alive.......
 

AnimalLady

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Hm. I'm thinking when they die they become toxic.

I started reading an article that was talking about it.. they assumed that dead iguanas can produce botulism toxin which comes from bacteria that might possibly be found in long-dead iguana remains. *shrugs*

there are also a few reports that said back when that cold snap happened with all the dead iggies that a lot of dogs started getting sick, paralyzed in the back legs, they think the dead iguanas had something to do with it, but couldn't exactly prove it.

I didn't continue reading and checking sources though.
 

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