Stuff like this really irritates me. Damn irresponsible tegu owners are going to ruin it for the rest of us. There are too many groups out there that will take you tegu off your hands than releasing it into the FL ecosystem.
Strange lizard caught in So. Florida
Sep 30, 2011 3:30 p.m.
A South American tegu lizard was captured in western Davie, after residents reported a large lizard roaming their backyards.
Tegus, which can grow to five feet, have established breeding populations around Tampa and Homestead. They arrived in Florida via the exotic pet industry and either escaped or were released, joining Burmese pythons, Nile monitors and other non-native species that have established populations in Florida thanks to the demand for unusual pets.
Officers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission captured the three-foot lizard last week after being called in by the Davie Police Department. FWC Officer Nathan Brock said the lizard was fairly docile, suggesting it had been someone's pet. They took the tegu to the Sawgrass Recreation Park, where following a quarantine period, it would be given a home in the park's lizard exhibit.
The omnivorous lizards are likely to eat the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds, turtle eggs and young turtles, a variety of small prey and plants, according to a report by the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Copyright (C) 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Strange lizard caught in So. Florida
Sep 30, 2011 3:30 p.m.
A South American tegu lizard was captured in western Davie, after residents reported a large lizard roaming their backyards.
Tegus, which can grow to five feet, have established breeding populations around Tampa and Homestead. They arrived in Florida via the exotic pet industry and either escaped or were released, joining Burmese pythons, Nile monitors and other non-native species that have established populations in Florida thanks to the demand for unusual pets.
Officers of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission captured the three-foot lizard last week after being called in by the Davie Police Department. FWC Officer Nathan Brock said the lizard was fairly docile, suggesting it had been someone's pet. They took the tegu to the Sawgrass Recreation Park, where following a quarantine period, it would be given a home in the park's lizard exhibit.
The omnivorous lizards are likely to eat the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds, turtle eggs and young turtles, a variety of small prey and plants, according to a report by the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Copyright (C) 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
