- [Mark] What's that? - There's a tegu right there. - [Mark] Where?
- It's back. It's right on the edge of
the grass, you see that? - [Mark] It looks like a rock. Careful. (dramatic music) Wow! (adventurous music) (tense music) - [Coyote] From high in the sky, the pine scrub forests
of Southern Florida appear to be calm and quiet. Yet, hidden amidst the
plants and rugged terrain, reptilian invaders move with
stealth amongst the shadows. I am sure you have heard tales
about the Burmese Python, and how this giant
snake has not only become established
in the Everglades, but how it has also
become a serious threat to local species. However, there is a new threat that has recently crawled
into the spotlight. A lizard native to South America that is notoriously famous for
being an aggressive predator. The black and white tegu. Today the crew and
I are headed out into the Southern Regions
of Homestead, Florida. We will be exploring
a forested expanse that runs adjacent to
an agricultural zone, where we will try our luck at finding one of
these elusive reptiles. So right now we are driving
through an agricultural area, which is considered disturbed
habitat, right Mario? - [Mario] Yeah. - And why is disturbed
habitat a good place to look for invasive species? - [Mario] Well, oftentimes
in disturbed habitat you don't have any species
that have been established, so non-native species
come in and they find kind of an area that's free of
predators and other species. For the Argentinian
tegu it means free food. - [Coyote] There are
known to be at least two established
breeding populations
of tegu in this area, and sightings are
reported almost weekly. These lizards are incredibly
resilient to weather changes and can adapt to nearly
any tropical environment barring a plentiful food
source is available. Combine with the fact that
during breeding season females can lay up to
35 eggs in a single nest and that they have very
few natural predators, you can see why their numbers
have quickly increased and the populations have
established a stronghold. Okay this looks
pretty wild out here, and I'll show you
guys, check this out. Right across the way here... That is agricultural area. So, this is exactly
the spot where a lot of farmers have
been seeing tegus. You can see on this
side is agriculture, and on the opposite
side is wilderness area. No one knows exactly how
many of these lizards are roaming amongst
the underbrush, but experts predict numbers to
run well into the thousands. This is definitely
way more wilderness-ey than agriculture. But it's dense. This underbrush is
gonna be really hard to spot anything in. Kinda feel like moving
along this old trail is probably the best way to go. Check this out. You have spots like this, the
ground is starting to warm up. A spot like that is where
one of these lizards could come out and be basking, and that's what we're
hoping to find right now is a lizard out basking in the
sun warming up for the day. It's actually chilly
out this morning, so, I don't know if that's
gonna hurt our chances of actually finding one, but I guess we
just start hiking, and hopefully we get lucky. We broke trail and headed
off into the wilderness. Navigating this location
was incredibly difficult, which forced us to move slowly as we searched among the tangled
plants and rocky terrain. Tegu are masters of disguise, and their black and white skin allows them to perfectly
camouflage amidst the shadows, oftentimes making them
difficult to find. I'm gonna pretty much say that trudging through that for hours is not gonna get us anywhere. I think we just
stick to this road. I think we have just
as good a chance of finding something
on this, so, if I head this direction, hopefully we'll come
across something. With hundreds of acres to cover, defaulting to the trails
seemed like a smart play, and it wasn't long
before we stumbled upon the most wanted lizard
in South Florida. (tense music) - [Mark] What's that? - There's a tegu right there. - [Mark] Where?
- It's back. It's just up on the edge... Right on the edge of the road! - [Mark] I don't see it. - [Coyote] Right there, look
at the edge of the road. See that dark thing
looks like a rock? That's a lizard, do
you see it's tail? - [Mark] That's not a rock? - [Coyote] That's a lizard. Here, here...
- [Mark] You sure? - Take this camera. - [Mark] Careful. Got it? - Got it, got it,
got it, got it! - [Mark] Nice! - Yes! - [Mark] Oh, wow!
- Wow! That is a tegu! And it is cold! Wow, put your hand out there. Feel how cold the lizard is? - Ice cold, ice cold. - That's why it didn't bolt, it's actually basking
in the sun right now. Now I can't get complacent
because it could explode in power at
any point in time, let me get some of this grass
out of its mouth, there... There we go. Wow! And sure enough, just
like the farmer said there is the black
and white tegu! Look at how big that lizard is! This thing must be... What, almost three
feet in length. Now these guys are omnivores, which means they eat
plants and animals and one of their favorite
things to eat are eggs. Look at that mouth
right there, right? Now this can take down
all sorts of other little small
mammals and lizards, but it's the eggs
that we really worry about these lizards going after. Not only alligator eggs but also endangered American crocodiles. Okay... Yeah you can see the lizard
is now really starting to warm up in the sun, just... Jeez look at that, look at
what it just did to my arm, just with one scrape. My arm is shaking, I'm so... I cannot believe we've
come across a tegu. We haven't actually even
been out here that long, only searching for
about 20 minutes. Now, I don't know
if that's just luck being in the right
place at the right time, or if there are
actually that many tegu out here in this environment. But sure enough, just across
from an agricultural area, the farmers said they
have been seeing tegus, and this is proof right here. - [Mark] Now can
a lizard like that give you a good chomp? - Oh my gosh, if my hand
got stuck in the mouth of this lizard it would
be a really bad situation. Now, they are not venomous, however their jaws
will lock in place. Look at the muscle on the
side of these jaws here, incredibly powerful. Oh, I hear you hissin'. I hear you hissin', ooh,
ooh, hold on, hold on... Ah, jeez he is strong. Yeah, I am giving him
exactly what he needs today, which is some time
in front of the sun and I can actually feel
him getting stronger by the minute. If you get your hand stuck
in the mouth of this lizard, it's not only going
to chomp down, but if it shakes its body, those
teeth are curved backwards, similar to the teeth of
a spine-tailed iguana, or something like
a Komodo dragon. Those teeth will literally
shred your appendages. So, if I'm bitten
there is a good chance we'll be on our way
to the hospital. - [Mark] So, people at
home might be wondering, is this a dangerous situation? Do we have to respect
the power of this lizard, because it seems
to be pretty calm. - It does, and even
I find myself getting a little complacent. Just a couple
seconds ago you saw that it lashed out
with its hind legs and ripped open my arm. These claws... Look at the claws on
the back foot there. I mean these are razor sharp-- - [Mark] That's a talon. - Hooked claws. Now, these lizards are
incredibly intelligent, almost problem
solving intelligent. It's one of the reasons
they've become so popular in the pet trade, not to mention they're absolutely gorgeous. Look at that coloration, right? - [Mark] Yeah. - Except you can see
how large they get and it's a tough
creature to take care of because of the amount
of food that it eats. A lot of times people get
them when they're very small and then they think
to themselves, "Oh, I can't take care of
it anymore, it's so big.", and then they release
them out into the wild. Now I'm guessing
this lizard is one that probably was
born in the wild. Just given it's skinny
nature and its demeanor, so-- - [Mark] And this is not
a pet, even though it's-- - This is not a pet. - [Mario] That lizard seems
pretty calm right now, but that's just because
of the environment that it's in. - Yes, that has to
do with the fact that it's cool out
here this morning and the fact it's just
woken up from brumation. I mean, this is a
very skinny lizard. Honestly, this lizard
needs some eggs, it needs some meat, it
needs some vegetables, it needs some food, for sure. And, I guarantee that
today this lizard was waking up, getting ready
to go out there and hunt. Now if you look at this
animal you think to yourself "Wow, what a gorgeous reptile!" and it makes me sad
to say that this is one of the few times
where I catch an animal and I cannot release it
back out into the wild. This is an invasive species. But the good news
for this lizard is that we have a research group that's going to take it in and it's now going to
become an educational animal to teach people why the tegu doesn't necessarily
make a good pet and how they're becoming
a problem out here as an invasive species
in South Florida. But this was pretty awesome, spending out morning
searching around and then getting up close
with the black and white tegu. I'm Coyote Peterson,
be brave, stay wild! We'll see you on
the next adventure. Wow, you really
scratched up my arm! No one knows the exact
origin of the tegu invasion, the only thing we know for sure is that the black and
white tegu competes with and consumes Florida's
native wildlife. The threat is real, and
many experts feel as if that problem is
getting out of control. If you live in Florida and see one of these
lizards in the wild, contact your local Fish
and Wildlife Division to report the sighting. These lizards are
beautiful animals, however they simply do not
belong in this ecosystem. If you thought the tegu was
a dangerous looking lizard, make sure to go back
and watch the episode where I was bitten
by another one of Florida's reptilian
invaders, the Burmese python. And don't forget, subscribe, so you can join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail. (coyote howl)
RIPPED ME OPEN with its RAZOR SHARP CLAWS
K buddy
Oh yeah? Well my tegu could beat up your tegu!
I was pretty relieved to hear he wasn't going to cull it. I've got to say I'm curious about this educational group, they seem to be looking to make at least some of our numbers (pet tegu owners) go down.