Free Republic

ALAMEDA, Calif. - Former tenants left a massive lizard, called an ornate Niles monitor, behind in their home, Alameda police announced on Monday. Police dispatchers were called about it, and they, in turn, called animal control, police said. The lizard was large and aggressive, but police said they were able to devise a plan to get the reptile safely to the East Bay Vivarium. The lizards, which can often be confused with Komodo dragons, have powerful bites, strong claws, and forceful tails that can cause injuries. Police said that Ornate monitors, native to West and Middle Africa, are not suitable...

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...

CAPE CORAL -- Gregg Klowden and Zach Reffner wage war against lizards. BIG ones. In the battle to rid Southwest Florida of the 7-foot invader known as the Nile monitor, speed is essential. "The lizards can climb a tree like a shot out of hell, swim like a fish and outrun a man," said Klowden, a University of Florida-trained biologist. "They do everything but fly." These über lizards, first spotted in Cape Coral in 1990, have taken to the Florida sun so well that they're thriving. Because the rapacious reptiles are such skilled hunters, biologists worry they will devastate endangered...