6-Foot Lizards Invading Military Runway in Florida

nationalgeographic ^ | May 19, 2009 | Maryann Mott

[JoeProBono]

[sheik yerbouty]

I thought they might have been lounge lizards staggering around after a hard night..

[Travis T. OJustice]

Wilford Brimley is still alive!

[Max in Utah]

why does everything have to taste like “chicken”?

okay... "Tastes like rattlesnake."

[big black dog]

people buy them as little bay lizards, often not knowing what they have gotten themselves into.

"There are few lizards less suited to life in captivity than the Nile monitor. Buffrenil (1992) considered that, when fighting for its life, a Nile monitor was a more dangerous adversary than a crocodile of a similar size. Their care presents particular problems on account of the lizards' enormous size and lively dispositions. Very few of the people who buy brightly-coloured baby Nile monitors can be aware that, within a couple of years, their purchase will have turned into an enormous, ferocious carnivore, quite capable of breaking the family cat's neck with a single snap and swallowing it whole."

(Bennett, D. 1995. Little Book of Monitor Lizards, Viper Press, Aberdeen, UK)

[absolootezer0]

that’s better, i like rattlesnake- which reminds me more of wild turkey than chicken.

[seatrout]

—why does everything have to taste like “chicken”?—

Seems like EVERYTHING tastes like “chicken.” Except turkey, of course!

[McGruff]

Man that could cause The Big One at the track.

[Little Ray]

Post a $5 bounty on monitor lizards and a $10 bounty on clutches of monitor eggs. (and a $200 fine per lizard for owning, breeding, etc., monitor lizards...).

Or wait for sunny, issue arms and ammo to the troops and have a contest. Winner drinks free that night at the O-club or NCO Club.

Bet there would be NO lizards a few weeks.

[JoeProBono]

[greyline90]

Idiots get them as pets when they are small. These things get big quick. Because they are idiots, they don’t learn how to handle them. So they let them go. Other idiots decide they want to breed them and sell the skins to shoe companies and make a quick buck. It takes work and effort to be successful. The quick buck doens’t come. They let them go. Therefore big problem. First ones were brought in by Gangsta’s, flamboyant tonsil hockey players, and the like. Given the right environment, Florida certainly provides it, they will flourish in the wild. They are flourishing.

[JoeProBono]

Lizard bounties can backfire - piss off the lizard

[Tarpon]

LOL ...

Silenced air guns are better.

[Woebama]

Just what South Florida freaking needs. We already have iguana’s all over the place and now this.

[ZULU]

On the other hand, they eat aliigator and crocodile eggs.

Much ado about nothing.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

Seems like FL should have laws banning the sale/ownership of such non-native animals.

Or maybe they already do but can’t enforce them?

[BubbaBasher]

These were taken on May 16th by an acquaintance in Temple Terrace, Fl. It was in his yard.

[JoeProBono]

[CholeraJoe]

Do they taste like chicken or more fishy?

[Tax-chick]

I’m more fond of reptiles than the average person (we have five so far), but those Nile monitors are scary. They don’t have pleasant personalities like a constrictor snake or a dragon - just eating machines.