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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Floriduh Iguana! Wait, What?

Floriduh Iguana! Wait, What?

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Beware the falling iguanas in South Florida.

When temperatures dip into the 30s and 40s, people from West Palm Beach to Miami know to be on the lookout for reptiles stunned — but not necessarily killed — by the cold. They can come back to life again when it warms up.

Iguanas, which can be as long as six feet, are not native to South Florida. They have proliferated in the subtropical heat, causing headaches for wildlife managers — and occasionally popping up in toilets. It took a prolonged cold spell to significantly reduce their population in 2010. (The same cold snap also resulted in the deaths of many invasive Burmese pythons.)

Iguanas climb up trees to roost at night, said Ron Magill, communications director for Zoo Miami.

“When the temperature goes down, they literally shut down, and they can no longer hold on to the trees,” he said. “Which is why you get this phenomenon in South Florida that it’s raining iguanas.” (Including on windshields.)

The larger the iguana, the greater its chance of survival, Mr. Magill added.

“Even if they look dead as a doornail — they’re gray and stiff — as soon as it starts to heat up and they get hit by the sun rays, it’s this rejuvenation,” he said. “The ones that survive that cold streak are basically passing on that gene.”

And they have a plan!

He suspects that, within a couple of decades, iguanas will creep north because they will be able to withstand colder climates.

More at the link.

Stay frosty, unless you’re experiencing bombogenesis, then stay toasty! And beware of falling iguanas!

Open thread!

Also, no iguanas were harmed in the writing of this post.

Reader Interactions

26Comments

  2. 2.

    Tom Levenson

    As I said on twitter, this gives me the opportunity to revive the late great Herb Caen’s terrible joke remixes of torch songs w. animal themes…as in “I love parrots in the springtime.”

    In this case, it’s “Iguana who’s kissing her cow.”

    #sorrynotsorry.

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    He suspects that, within a couple of decades, iguanas will creep north because they will be able to withstand colder climates.

    Oh great…now I’m starting to think that these polar vortexes and bomb cyclones are not so bad after all…

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    He suspects that, within a couple of decades, iguanas will creep north because they will be able to withstand colder climates.

    as long as those are the largest lizardy creatures you send this way…

    years ago, I read an article that armadillos were creeping north, and certain species of birds

  8. 8.

    Eljai

    I can relate because I, too, am gray and stiff but I am rejuvenated by the sun’s rays. Coffee works too.

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Frank Rich @ frankrichny
    Says much about what a provincial fool #JeffSessions is that he thinks cracking down on weed will somehow save him from obstruction culpability.

    Brilliant reporting by nytmike worth reading in full. Among other revelations, clearly Reince has turned and Rod Rosenstein is a patsy.

    The Reince Flip: Revenge of the Pantsed

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    After today, the NYT is feeling Reince’s pain. ?

    I’m still enjoying the thought of Maggie Haberman’s slow realization over the course of the day that nobody gives a shit about her “exclusive” “insider” book anymore.

  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tom Levenson: I am willing to drive to MA to get revenge. Not tonight, of course. Honestly given my schedule, late April may be best. May I punch you then?

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Amir Khalid: I’m guessing Rich is referring to this, from the Schmidt article

    Two days after Mr. Comey’s testimony, an aide to Mr. Sessions approached a Capitol Hill staff member asking whether the staffer had any derogatory information about the F.B.I. director. The attorney general wanted one negative article a day in the news media about Mr. Comey, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting.
    A Justice Department spokeswoman said the episode did not occur. “This did not happen and would not happen,” said the spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores. “Plain and simple.”
    Earlier that day, Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, had pulled one of Mr. McGahn’s deputies aside after a meeting at the Justice Department. Mr. Rosenstein told the aide that top White House and Justice Department lawyers needed to discuss Mr. Comey’s future. It is unclear whether this conversation was related to the effort to dig up dirt on Mr. Comey.

    Rosenstein did IIRC draft the initial memo justifying Comey’s firing. I think Meuller was, and remains, Rosenstein’s attempt to win back his dignity in his own eyes.

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    @Mike J: Sorry, Mike, too early! I think you have to let them hang out for, oh, say, 18 months, and then you send out the tweet that you never authorized them.

  23. 23.

    Greg in PDX

    I spent a winter awhile back with friends in the Keys. One morning, after a somewhat chilly night, I walked out in the yard like I always did and was horrified to see iguanas lying all over the patio, the yard, the driveway. Everywhere. Dozens of them. I freaked My friends were still asleep so I didn’t wake them but later they were up and the iguanas were gone and I told them that it had rained iguanas and they thought I was drunk (they hadn’t lived there during a cold snap yet). My friends outside of Florida that I wrote to thought I was drunk too. Thank God later that day all of the local papers had pictures and the headline in our local Keys paper said “It Rained Iguanas Last Night”. Ha! I was not drunk It DID rain iguanas!

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    Wishing all those Florida iguanas a safe landing. Don’t fall on road surfaces or windshields, little ones.

  26. 26.

    Magda in Black

    If I recall “Night of The Iguana” correctly, theyre edible. Hey, where I grew up, hog roasts were a thing…..just sayin’…..

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