6-Foot Lizards Invading Military Runway in Florida

nationalgeographic ^ | May 19, 2009 | Maryann Mott

[JoeProBono]

Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami, Florida, is dealing with a different sort of small ground invasion: the Nile monitor lizard.

These invasive reptiles—possibly former family pets or escapees from nearby breeding facilities—occasionally lumber onto the base's tarmac to soak up the sun's rays.

"When you have an airplane coming in to land or take off, and you have a 6-foot [1.8-meter] reptile laying on the runway, it causes a substantial human health and safety problem," said Parker Hall, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services.

Agency employees patrol the runways on a regular basis to shoo away birds, capture lizards, and deal with any other pests that may show up.

But that's a tall order given the base's close proximity to both the Everglades and Biscayne National Parks, both home to diverse arrays of wildlife that regularly spill into the base's vast woodlands and wetlands.

Lizard Explosion

Invasive lizards in southern Florida—such as the monitor, native to Africa—now outnumber native species, experts say.

These hefty predators—weighing up to 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms)—have a voracious appetite, and have been observed eating protected species such as the burrowing owl.

In nearly two decades monitor lizards have been spotted in seven Floridian counties, with the biggest breeding population living in Cape Coral, a city on the state's west coast.

[Dallas59]

That’s racist!/s

[JoeProBono]

KIDS!

[CaspersGh0sts]

I believe that's a Savannah monitor. Pretty common pet these days. They do get big, and a lot harder to manage unless you socialize them.

[mad_as_he$$]

Why is it still alive?

[JoeProBono]

Yup

[Centurion2000]

Damn .... that baby monster almost looks too big to take with a .22.

[JoeProBono]

[seatrout]

Irresponsible pet owners simply tire of them and let them go. The Everglades are full of Burmese pythons now for this very reason.

[Joe Brower]

Florida Freeper

[usmcobra]

There’s simple solution. Tell Cajuns they are good to eat and out of season. Problem solved

One small problem with this solution, there are no Cajuns in Miami.

[Tax-chick]

LOL!

[Slings and Arrows]

When I see these stories about invasive non-native species, I always wonder how something like a 6-foot lizard makes its way over here from Africa (”lizards on a plane?”) and into Florida’s swamps without being detected somewhere along the way.

They follow the Mexicans.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

The Everglades are full of Burmese pythons now for this very reason.

On the life after people show the other day they said there are already about 30,000 pythons in the everglades. Left alone they think that the pythons will drive the gators into near extinction.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

They follow the Mexicans.

From Africa?

[Slings and Arrows]

From Africa?

They're cunning, those Mexicans.

[GladesGuru]

EAT MO’ LIZARD ! ! ! ! !

LIZARD - THE NEW WHITE MEAT

[JoeProBono]

[bert]

How about tasty to alligators

[SaraJohnson]

We used to call ‘em gators. Do these critters make good boots and belts? Do they taste like fried chicken?

[trisham]

Vile creatures.