Posted on 03/05/2022 5:04:11 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Standing in a boat in suburban Fort Lauderdale, Chris Whitaker aimed a .25-caliber air rifle at a large green iguana on a canal bank and squeezed the trigger.
Whitaker and his girlfriend, Krissy Garcia, had paid $500 to Hunting Iguanas LLC for four hours of iguana hunting in Broward County, where the nonnative reptiles have found a congenial home along canals lined with a lush variety of trees.
Hated in many neighborhoods for consuming flowers, fruit trees and vegetable gardens, green iguanas have become a business opportunity for several companies that lead guided hunts along South Florida canals. While many residents cheered on the iguana hunters on a recent excursion, the air rifles required several shots for a kill, subjecting many iguanas to lingering deaths.
Whitaker, 29, an experienced hunter, had flown to Fort Lauderdale from Tyler, Texas, with his girlfriend just to try his hand at shooting iguanas. “I saw it on Facebook, and I thought, ‘Man, I gotta do this,’” he said.
They shot 26 iguanas off trees and off the canal banks, moving slowly through the network of canals that have kept the neighborhood dry in what used to be the Everglades. Krissy Garcia brought down a couple of large ones, their skin a combination of orange, brown and green.
Along the canals, residents cheered on the hunters for taking down reptiles who consumed their gardens and fruit trees. The iguanas’ industrious digging also damages power lines, sidewalks and seawalls.
“Thank you for doing this, man!” James Mathew shouted from his backyard on the canal bank. “I was happy when I see you guys doing this.”
He said the iguanas have devoured all his attempts to grow things.
(Excerpt) Read more at union-bulletin.com ...
I guess iguanas, pythons, and alligators have a racket going. They don’t seem to to eat one another.
I’m on a Mexican radio......
Geez, they’re harmless enough.... Is this really necessary?
And it only took 3 posts …
I’d have to be pretty freakin’ hungry to eat that.
However most people have no idea what they’re capable of eating if they are hungry enough.
And it would have been the second post if it weren’t for that meddling kid BradyLS posting while I was prepping the images...
Not from the videos I've been watching. Check out videos by "Iguana Man" and "Iguana Solutions".
I love those PCP air rifles too.
Watching the iguana hunts, the numbers of lizards are incredible. It's no wonder tho since a single female will lay between 30 and 70 eggs and there are no natural predators that I know of.....
Yes
Six Ways to Cook Iguana
https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/restaurants/six-ways-to-cook-iguana-6392248
For some people of certain ethnic extractions, iguana on the barbie is a cultural touchpoint. On some of the YouTube iguana hunts, there are folks who are more than happy to go in after the hunters to pick up the dead iguanas for a feast.
It would seem the residents would be doing this for themselves. Don't they have boats? Air rifles?
It was considered a delicacy in Panama, while I was there.
There are commercial Iguana farms, they are efficient converters of vegetable matter to meat.
Boats aren't necessary, they're all over the place. The boat safari is just one easy and safe way to take a couple out on a hunt.
Lots of the iguana exterminators have contracts with HOA's, golf courses, apartment and condo complexes.....
“It was considered a delicacy in Panama, while I was there.”
I was headed to Ft Clayton in 81 and hit an iguana, the car behind stopped and picked it up.
—” It’s no wonder tho since a single female will lay between 30 and 70 eggs and there are no natural predators that I know of.....”
What is the enemy of an iguana?
Natural Enemies
Raccoons, fish, crows, vultures, feral pigs, and other predators dig up iguana nests and eat the eggs. Raccoons, snakes, hawks, owls, egrets, herons, cats, and dogs kill the majority of hatchling and juvenile iguanas.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN528
Here in DuPage County, many raccoons have moved from Chiraq, now I know why there are no iguanas .
—”It would seem the residents would be doing this for themselves.”
This is South Florida!
They are all very old and mostly drive around with their turn signal on.
Are you serious? They eat everything and they have no natural predators and they dig deep burrows that wash out sidewalks, roads, canals, and embankments. There is an episode of Dirty Jobs where one of Mile Row’s jobs is iguana eradicator. Watch it.
Alligators eat everything. My question is why can’t the residents kill the lizards themselves? Why do people have to pay to shoot them.?
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