Latest news with #EricSuarez
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Help! My pet caught one of those red-headed lizards seen in Florida. Is it dangerous?
What's orange (or red) and blue, long and fast? And it could be outside your door, under your car, in the tree over your head ... you get the picture. Say hello to the Peter's rock agama. They're not new to Florida, but they've definitely made themselves at home, but are they poisonous and what happens if your pet catches one? Peter's rock agamas were first documented in Florida in 1976, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They are native to tropical, sub-Saharan Africa. Like so many other invasive species, the Peter's rock agamas were introduced via the pet trade as either escaped or released pets, FWC said. They're among about 50 species of nonnative lizards now found in Florida, according to the University of Florida. Since showing up in Florida in 1976, Peter's rock agamas have become established in these counties: Brevard Broward Charlotte Collier Hillsborough Indian River Lee Manatee Martin Miami-Dade Monroe Okeechobee Orange Palm Beach Pinellas Polk Sarasota Seminole St. Lucie Volusia The FWC encourages the public to report observations of nonnative fish and wildlife, but additional reports of agamas from counties where they are established are not needed. Report non-native species at You're going to love this: "Peter's rock agama are largely confined to residential sites and human-dominated areas in Florida, and they do not normally appear to invade natural habitats," according to a University of Florida/IFAS report. In other words, they like to live where we are, and that puts them not only in view to us, but provide temptation to our pets. "They tend to prefer disturbed habitats in urban and suburban areas. Even if found in a natural area or an open field, they still tend to occur near some structure like a house, office building, trailer, pole barn, etc.," according to Eric Suarez, invasive species research program coordinator at the University of Florida via email. "They can climb well and are sometimes spotted on fences, walls, or trees," said Lisa Thompson with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, via email. "Peter's rock agamas, like many other lizards, typically seek out areas with abundant cover for shelter from predators and access to the sun when needed. They can take shelter in trees, shrubbery, dense weeds, and under objects. Agamas are active during the day. "While agamas aren't venomous or poisonous, they can harbor parasites and bacteria that may or may not cause a dog or cat discomfort, but that is likely a case-by-case basis," Suarez said. If your pet is bitten by an agama, "just like any bite or scratch a pet may have, it should be washed, cleaned, and treated appropriately to prevent it from potentially getting worse (e.g., getting infected)." "It is not recommended to let pets interact directly with agamas or any wildlife, whether nonnative or native," Thompson said. "Wild Peter's rock agamas are generally not aggressive but may be defensive and try to bite if handled directly. While they aren't venomous, the bite of a larger agama may be painful." Peter's rock agamas are fast. They usually flee when approached. If your pet is fast enough to catch one, like other lizards, the agamas will leave their tail behind to get away. "Regardless, like any wild animal, if cornered where it cannot get away, I am sure it will try and defend itself," Suarez said. Agamas are not protected in Florida except by anti-cruelty law and can be humanely killed on private property with landowner permission. This species can be captured and humanely killed year-round and without a permit or hunting license, the FWC said. They're classified as Class III wildlife in Florida, so a permit is not required to keep them as pets but a permit is required for exhibition or sale. If you can no longer keep an agama as a pet, do not release it, the FWC said. "Owners may surrender unwanted pet agamas through the FWC's Exotic Pet Amnesty Program." Adult male Peter's rock agamas are approximately 8 to 12 inches long. Females are smaller, about 4 to 5 inches long. Breeding males are the ones that catch your eye. They have an orange or red head, indigo blue or black body, and a tail that is bluish white at the base with an orange middle segment and black tip, according to the FWC. Non-breeding males and females tend to look the same, with brownish, rough-scaled bodies, light-colored lines on the head and neck, and a whitish band on the back of the thighs that extends onto the sides if the tail. Agamas feed mostly on ants, grasshoppers, crickets and beetles and other insects, the FWC said. They've also been seen feeding on a variety of smaller prey animals including snakes, lizards, birds and mammals, as well as their own offspring. "Peter's rock agamas are often easy to see but can be difficult to catch. Eradication of established populations in Florida is likely not feasible," the FWC said. "Just based of reports in the last 10 years or so they seem to be spreading quickly throughout Florida," Suarez said. This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Peter's rock agama Florida. Red-headed lizard, pet dangers, what know
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
These big predator lizards eat iguanas, toads and more. Here's where they lurk in Florida.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Six-foot predatory lizards normally found along the Nile River in Africa have set up shop in South Florida — and Palm Beach County canals are a hot spot. Nile monitors, which can grow to just over 6 feet and about 20 pounds, have been living along the C-51 Canal, which parallels Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach, running from Palm Beach International Airport west to Wellington. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has stepped up control efforts in recent years, but the lizards are fast and wary, and even seem 'untrappable.' There is hope, though, gained from efforts in other parts of the state. Eric Suarez, who worked for the FWC to control the Palm Beach Nile monitor population from 2016 to 2019, and who is now a wildlife biologist at the University of Florida, said the lizards showed up in 1981 and established wild breeding populations by the 1990s. There's a separate population in Cape Coral, west of Fort Myers, he said, which for some reason is trappable. He suspects it may be because there's more prey along Palm Beach canals. The Cape Coral environment is more residential and manicured, with less cover. Wildlife officials believe canals act as conduits for reptiles, allowing them to reach new areas. 'What we think is that the C-51 Canal was the main area of introduction of the Nile monitors (in Palm Beach County) and then they started branching out to the E-2 Canal,' said Suarez. The E-2 parallels Florida's Turnpike, south of Southern Boulevard. Nile monitors, smaller cousins to the massive Komodo dragons of Indonesia, were first introduced to Florida by the exotic pet trade, the same industry that brought in iguanas and Burmese pythons. Florida made it illegal to possess a Nile monitor in 2021. In fact, Suarez and his brother had a Nile monitor pet as teens. 'It was very aggressive and we were bit by it multiple times, and it hurt,' he said. 'And this was a juvenile, maybe 16 inches long.' Nile monitors are long and thin, with skin that looks beaded with gray and yellow dots. The dots form stripes on their torso and tail. Like iguanas, they're active in the daytime, take shelter in burrows or trees at night, and dig burrows that erode and collapse sidewalks, seawalls and canal banks. But unlike iguanas, they're predators. They compete with and eat native wildlife, the FWC said, and are thus considered invasive. The African lizards will hunt nearly anywhere (in trees, on the ground, in burrows and in both fresh and salt water) and eat almost anything they can catch. That could include birds and their eggs, from burrowing owls to songbirds, turtles and turtle eggs, frogs, crabs, fish, snakes, small mammals and even young alligators or crocodiles. They also eat invasive species, such as green iguanas. A diet study by Frank Mizzotti at UF found that the lizards even ingest poisonous invasive cane toads, with seemingly no ill effects. Suarez said they're tough to control for a few reasons. They're highly reproductive, laying 12 to 60 eggs per clutch, and they're skittish and fast. Unlike pythons, the lizards often flee quickly when they sense a human. Biologists have been able to trap the population in Cape Coral, but the Palm Beach County lizards seem untrappable, Suarez said. They just won't crawl into a cage to take the bait. The FWC has found a shotgun with safety permits to be the most effective method of control for the Palm Beach lizards. 'When you're on the C-51 you're just driving a boat along these canals at a very slow speed and hopefully you see one,' Suarez said. 'By the time you see one, they're darting into the canals. … They're amazing swimmers.' The FWC has made it open season for the public to hunt Nile monitors in Florida year-round, but you do have to obey anti-cruelty laws, and you can't just shoot them anywhere you see them. They can be humanely killed on private property with landowner permission, or on specific state-managed land in South Florida. Suarez said that wildlife officials have upped efforts to contain the species and stop them from spreading. In just three years, from 2016 to 2019, they removed as many lizards from Palm Beach County as they did in the previous 15 years. That was more a reflection of control efforts than a growing population, Suarez said. Since then, sightings along C-51 have diminished a bit. Can they actually be eradicated? That's tough to say. Ideally Suarez would want to trap and track females to their nests, but the east-coast lizards are so wary, it so far feels impossible to catch adults alive. He said there's reason for optimism, though. Back in the early 2000s, there was a population of Nile monitors living in and around the Homestead Air Reserve Base in Miami-Dade County. A team of biologists there set out to control the population and there hasn't been an observation there since approximately 2016, Suarez said. 'They did a hell of a job,' he said. 'We can't say it's eradicated for sure, but it's a potential success story.' And the private sector may have some answers. Wildlife trapper Mike Kimmel, aka the Python Cowboy, has used dogs trained to track hogs and pythons to also locate the lizards. He was able to take them alive, which would allow wildlife officials to tag and track females to their nests if they had funding. You can view where, exactly, Nile monitors have been observed and removed from South Florida on the interactive EDDMapS map, at The Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System, run by the University of Georgia, logs reports from the public and wildlife officials of invasive species in the U.S., from plants to bugs to animals. You can zoom in to see specific catches, some of which have photos. If you see what you think is a Nile monitor, you can report sightings to the FWC's Invasive Species Hotline at 888-IVE-GOT1 (483-4681). If they can confirm the species from photos or videos, they'll investigate and, if feasible, try to capture or remove the animal. ____
