No, no, no, what you are describing are the Raelians!
Posted on 06/29/2011 12:45:59 PM PDT by TheDingoAteMyBaby
If you see a seven-foot lizard in your Broward or Palm Beach residence, that's a problem, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Nile Monitor lizards, native to Africa, have been popping up around the two counties -- enough times to warrant a hotline and a website dedicated to reporting freak lizard sightings.
The lizard hot spot is the canal along Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach, according to the FWC, which just caught two in the area last week -- including a five-foot lizard discovered on someone's patio after it crawled through the doggy door.
They killed both of the lizards they found last week, probably because these things are ridiculous.
"This is a high-priority species for us," Scott Hardin, coordinator of the FWC's Exotic Species Coordination Section, says in a statement. "We plan to go after them aggressively to either try to eradicate them or suppress their numbers if they are determined to be established."
The South Florida Water Management District, which manages the canals, has also been setting up traps and conducting surveys about these lizards.
The FWC says it's caught several freaky lizards in central Broward County, but some were not the Nile species, and they weren't quite sure what some of them were.
The Nile Monitor lizards are "large, predatory" animals that are "known to be very defensive when cornered," the FWC says.
Just in case you were thinking you'd wrestle a seven-foot lizard if you find one at your place, the FWC says it would rather you not do that -- it'd rather you call 888-IVE-GOT1 or go to IveGot1.org to report that bad boy.
These specific lizards are supposed to be living in the Cape Coral area, but the FWC says its main concern is that they could become predators to bird colonies as they've made their way east.
Do you remember the black guy and the deer? With a dog thrown in ?
No, no, no, what you are describing are the Raelians!
I wonder if theyre good eats?
Just ask the mexicans in the area.
Just in case you were thinking you’d wrestle a seven-foot lizard if you find one at your place
I was thinking more of just shooting it and burying it in the backyard.....maybe make some boots.
No, that’s a different monitor, from Indonesia — the komodo dragon.
The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) is a large species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and Gili Dasami.[3] A member of the monitor lizard family (Varanidae), it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to a maximum of length 8 ft in rare cases and weighing up to around 150 lb. The mouth contains saliva that is so infectious.
I keep thinking that in Florida a natural balance is going to occur among feral hogs, pythons and now freaky 7-foot lizards.
Yep. Some species are venomous, all species have a really nasty bite that will become infected. They are intelligent (for lizards), faster than they look, and should not be approached. They should be shot from a distance.
Don’t forget the killer bees!
Yeah! You better not forget!
Komodos can grow 10 feet long. I think some internet sources listed them as three meters or 9.8 feet and soon that became eight feet somehow.
In captivity they have reached weights of over 300 lbs and such weights may have been reached in the wild.
“...including a five-foot lizard discovered on someone’s patio after it crawled through the doggy door.”
That’ll get ya off the shine. LOL!!
Somebody needs to cut back on the ether.
Between the pythons, feral hogs and seven foot long nile monitor lizards, Florida is looking like a great place to hunt.
“I wonder if theyre good eats?
Just ask the mexicans in the area.”
I was fishing in Nicaragua and several 3-4 foot monitor lizards were running around the trees. The native guide got very excited and pulled out an ancient marlin .22. He looked at me and asked if I could shoot so I snatched up the rusty hulk and nailed a couple at which point the guide shrieked and jumped overboard and retrieved his prizes with a huge grin.
I asked him if they were good to eat and he said they were the very best. I asked if that was what we we eating that night and he said it was no good for gringos, we had to eat the fresh snook, lobster and snappers, which he considered inferior fare. He said, wait for it..., they tasted like “chicken”.
At every village he shouted and held up the lizards and we were roundly cheered. Amazing. I had a little bit, reminded me of frog legs, which are excellent, a cross between rattle snake and alligator.
Think that was because the guide couldn't shoot, or shooting them was illegal? :>)
“Think that was because the guide couldn’t shoot, or shooting them was illegal?”
I doubt he could shoot very well because ammo is expensive and rationed in Communist Nicaragua. You don’t bowl a 200 if you only bowl once a year and you generally can’t shoot a running lizard in the head if you only shoot a few rounds a year. I was a collegiate National Match shooter and still shoot 10,000+ rds a year so I had a leg up on him.
Even if you have some natural talent, if you don’t practice you get rusty, regardless of the sport.
You make a good point about the skill levels. What i was wondering about was , despite the fact that they turn up in restaurants and markets (some), whether it was legal to shoot them, which it isn’t in some parts of the region. Thus passing off the responsibility. I don’t know about Nicaragua.
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