Skip to main content

Invasive and Unwanted, Iguana Euthanasia


This semester I am taking a Vertebrate Zoology class and the professor introduced us to a Facebook page, "Wildlife Issues" that has been a useful resource for keeping up with current events in conservation. For this week's blog post I was browsing the page and was surprised by a header on the timeline: "Florida's Solution to its Invasive Iguana Problem: Smash their Skulls in". Despite it's gory implications, the disposal of these iguanas is definitely a necessity, as explained in the article by the Washington Post. The Iguanas were originally native to a broad area ranging from Mexico to South America to the Caribbean and were brought to Florida as pets around 1966. Since then they have spread from Miami to the Keys and as far as Palm Beach.
To address the “smash their skulls in” portion, many biologists are going out with bolt guns to kill the iguanas, while the in-the-head portion is to reduce the suffering of the animals. The reason there is funding for the iguanas to be killed is that they are causing significant damage to waterways and are reducing the fruit and vegetation to levels where soil erosion is becoming an issue. Additionally, the iguanas have been known to carry salmonella and pose a significant health risk if their feces get into drinking waters or pools.
Despite the incentive to get rid of the creatures, laws preventing animal cruelty pose a risk, if you only injure the creatures you can receive up to $5000 fines. Furthermore residents are taking it upon themselves to get rid of the iguanas with pellet guns, as local legislature allows. Last thing of note is that, when possible, the scientists will capture the iguanas and euthanize them. All of the Iguanas are then studied and disposed of in a landfill. I swear I set out to write this in a positive light but it still sounds bad, invasive species are also bad, shrug.
Iguana pictured from the article. No custom illustration this week, apologies.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Large Population of Adélie Penguins Discovered

A recent article highlighted in Nature Journey documents a new find in the Antarctic, a huge population of Ad é lie penguins on the Danger Islands . This population numbers in around 1.5 million individuals, that were previously not known to researchers. This hotspot for penguins was found with the assistance of aerial drones to access parts of the Antarctic Peninsula that were previously inaccessible by boat. This finding gives proof of concept to this method of data acquisition, and leads researchers to look in more remote places for tracking species more closely. Contrary to the general trend associated with climate change reducing Antarctic ice mass, this population of penguins has been largely unaffected; they will however, be considered in ongoing efforts of conservation due to their large significance in the region. Throughout the continent, Ad é lie penguin populations have decreased as much as 70 due to rising air temp and decreased ice packing’s effect on prey availabi...

Using Snow Coat as an Example of Climate Change and Adaptive Traits

Least Weasels as drawn by skilled illustrator In a recent study in Science Journal, climate researchers L. Scott Mills, et al, are using seasonal coat changes as an example to demonstrate the need for adaptive rescue strategies for saving species from human initiated climate change. Many species in snow covered areas have adapted to seasonal snow by possessing white coats in the winter and then shedding them for brown coats when snow is less prevalent, this trait is known as winter coat polymorphism. The study tracked the coloration of four species of hares, three weasles, and arctic wolves in relation to their geographical location and annual snow cover. Using over 2500 samples from over 60 countries the researchers determined ranges for the species sampled where there are white only, brown only, and both white and brown. This research is important for conservationists to recognize the effect adaption has on fitness in changing climates. It recognizes in discreet ways how ...

Bathing Apes before Hype Beasts

This week’s post comes after a very stressful week for me; exams, papers, and scrambling to get ready for graduation. At the end of Thursday I ended up going home for Alec’s birthday (my little brother who just turned 14), the weekend, by contrast was very relaxing. Alec is much different than me or my older brother, probably because of the large age gap, he is obsessed with brand name clothes and shoes and the like. While having dinner on Saturday, we began to ridicule him for looking up and dreaming about $2000 Nikes, Supreme gear and Bathing Ape, so while looking for a topic for this blog, the latter brand took my interest, Above is a video about Japan’s famous “bathing apes”; the macaques. The video starts off describing the history of how a group of macaques started using naturally occurring hotsprings in the colder northern region of japan. The macaques began using these hotsprings in human establishments, so to keep both groups happy, locals built a site just for the macaque...