Cold weather leaves iguanas in Pembroke Pines stunned, easy to catch. Have a look
West Broward turned into one of the chilliest spots in South Florida over the weekend as a rare cold snap sent temperatures plunging toward freezing — and spelled bad news for iguanas in Pembroke Pines.
The invasive reptiles’ battle against the cold — and capture — continued on Monday, Feb. 2.
It all began Sunday, as temperatures dipped into the low 30s in West Broward and iguana removal companies took advantage of their incapacitated prey.
They reported an unusually high volume of calls from Pembroke Pines, where residents woke up to green iguanas lying motionless.
Photos taken by Miami Herald photographers in Pembroke Pines showed moribund iguanas on the ground. The reptiles are disliked for the damage they do to plant life and waste.
Across South Florida, trappers with Redline Iguana Removal said they were scooping up iguanas “by the dozens” as the cold weather overwhelmed the cold-blooded reptiles, they told the Miami Herald.
“I would say we found the most iguana in West Broward, cities like Pembroke Pines, Coral Springs, Davie and Cooper City,” Blake Wilkins, owner of Redline Iguana Removal, told the Pembroke Pines News on Feb. 2.
Wilkins said at one Pembroke Pines golf course, his trappers picked up more than 100 incapacitated iguanas.
“It was crazy,” he said.
Wilkins said his crews began working before sunrise to take advantage of the cold conditions. By Sunday afternoon, his trappers had already visited roughly 100 locations across the region, he told the Herald.
“We’ll know better what the final count is at the end of the end of the day Monday, but a ballpark figure is about 2,000 iguanas caught,” Wilkins said.
Indeed, it was a rough weekend for the reptiles as the temperature at the National Weather Service station near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 6:53 a.m. on Sunday hit 35 degrees, just slightly above the daily record low of 33 recorded in 1966.
Wilkins, who has been removing iguanas for about a decade, said this cold front produced more frozen iguanas than he has ever seen. About half of the iguanas his crews collected were already dead.
For those iguanas that survived, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has temporarily lifted its usual restrictions over the weekend, allowing people on Sunday and Monday to trap the non-native invasive species and bring them to designated FWC offices for humane killing or transfer to permitted pet operators.
Still, professionals warned West Broward residents not to handle the animals themselves. Iguanas that appear frozen can revive quickly once temperatures rise and become aggressive.
As temperatures warm, removal companies expect calls from Pembroke Pines and other West Broward communities to continue, especially from residents concerned about iguanas reviving and fleeing into trees and canals.
