Yep!
Posted on 03/01/2014 3:45:16 PM PST by nickcarraway
The Tampa Bay area seems to be a fertile breeding ground for an exotic lizard that wildlife officials want to keep from becoming the state's next invasive species problem.
More than 100 black-and-white tegu lizards have been spotted in Hillsborough County, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The area is now considered home to one of three tegu breeding populations in the state.
Wildlife officials have spotted more than 100 of them between Riverview and Gibsonton. The animals, which are native to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, do not belong in the habitat in southwest Florida, and FWC is concerned about animals that call the area home losing their habitat because of the invasive lizards.
"People buy these cute little lizards at the pet store and then they grow to be too big for an aquarium and they are too expensive to feed and then they just set them free in the preserves," said FWC biologist, Tessie Offner.
Offner has spent the last three years catching tegus, which can grow to 4 feet long. They have no known predators according to the FWC.
"They produce rapidly, laying between 25-50 eggs at a time," said Offner. "They eat everything from plants to other animals with bones and shells- also amphibians, and birds."
She said their stomachs contains an acidic liquid that can dissolve animal bones and shells, like the gopher tortoise's, within days and it comes out like they never ate anything solid.
"We had a whole gopher turtle preserve on our 1,100 acres and now they are all gone," said volunteer horse rescue worker, Marvel Stewart. "We see four to five a week on our property."
Stewart lives in Lithia along with other homeowners who have been reported sightings of the lizards.
"One got into our horse shed, and thankfully the horse was not in there at the time, but if it had been it would have been bad because the horse would have bucked, and possibly hurt herself trying to run from the lizard," said Stewart.
The FWC has set 28 traps in the parkland and dozens more on private property to help catch them.
They lure the lizards in with a raw chicken egg and then trap them and humanely euthanize them.
if they paid those rednecks down there, $10 buck a lizard, there wouldn’t be one left for a 1000 miles.
Ya’ mean Mooch-elle flew down there? Horrors!
Yep!
Now why would a TV station in Grand Rapids Michigan do this story???
I was picturing Bill Clinton.
“humanly euthanized them”.....
Whatta waste...chop their heads off and save time and money!
Tegu’s are nasty bastards
Tegu’s are nasty bastards
and Liberals don't belong in the habitat of the United States of America (which has nothing to do with this article, but I thought I'd mention it).
Shoot them. Target practice. Load up and let em have it!
Convince the Japanese that they’re an aphrodisiac. They’ll be hunted to extinction in no time.
That’s way too sensible a solution for modern state DNRs.
Open a Lizard Dog fast food joint and make a fortune.
I thought this was about Valeria Jarrett.
Now is the time to allow anyone and everyone to kill them. If neccessary, pay bounties on these things.
That’s the way to go! Get a Food Network chef to come up with a recipe, like a creole, and market it as a delicacy.
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