There's been iguanas
down here for a long time but there's nothing that's gonna really
thin them out down here except for us or a cold snap. It's almost December
and it's 85 degrees out. Definitely a big problem. We've been outdoors men our whole lives. We're always out. So, we just saw it become a problem and we just set out to try to do something and try to make a difference
in controlling it. We love Florida, we love
South Florida's ecosystem so we saw a need for it. Right there. This is kinda some of
the things that they do. They destroy landscaping, they dig holes. Their tunnels can be up to 80 feet long. They spread salmonella in their feces. They're not from Florida. They're actually invasive to here. They're native to
Central and South America and they were brought in
in the pet trade and let go and now this is what we have to deal with. So their population's exploded over time and they're endangering native wildlife along with destroying our native plants. We've had people that had to reconcrete their sea walls because
there was such giant holes. People don't realize a lot of places, you have
more than one or two. We're talking double digits and you can just see by
having 10, 15 of these guys in your backyard, even
not knowing what they do, you can see how it can be a problem. South Florida, there's a
lot of canals down here. They just use them as
highways to disperse. So everyone living on the water, you're at a huge risk. Very impressive, they're great climbers, great swimmers, they're fairly fast, they have excellent vision. So, super competitive down
here in South Florida. We've removed upwards of 50 in one clutch. Sometimes they're clumsy so they'll get a little nervous
when you run underneath them and they'll try to go to another branch, miss and fall on your head. There's three species that you
predominantly find out here. This is the most prevalent. You'll also see black spiny tails and Mexican spiny tails, different species of iguanas. But those are the three that you most commonly find down here. They're all different sizes so I mean this just happens to
be a really large male. But for being as ferocious looking, they're predominant, they're herbivores. They've been here since the 60s. We haven't had any cold winter to limit their population so they're just breeding like crazy. Climate change, it's extreme temperature so we could get cold weather here but in general, the last few years, it's What, almost December and
it's 85 degrees out now? I mean, so who knows? If it gets cold enough, they're cold blooded so they
go in a state of inactivity. If it continues being
cold, they may not recover but there's been news
articles in the past where people think they're dead
because they're frozen, pick them up, and then
they end up heating up and then now you're holding or you have one in your car that's alive. So we do this to make sure
that they don't harm themselves or other animals while
they're in the other traps so they don't bite each
other, scratch each other. This is the most humane way
to remove them from a property other than keeping them in a trap. If you keep them in a trap, they like to bang up their noses then they get injured. Everything we do, we have respect. I went to school for biology. I love animals. This is not something we're
doing just to do it for fun. We really see the destruction
they've been causing. It is a problem.
