NEWS-JOURNAL (Daytona Beach, Florida) 07 December 05 Lake's newest reptilian resident creates a stir (Dinah Voyles Pulver)
Deltona: When Fred and Diane Litsey saw the new Lake Lapanocea resident for the first time, they couldn't believe it.
"My wife thought it was an alligator. Then she freaked out," said Fred Litsey.
Walking along the lakefront in his back yard on Hartley Circle, Litsey said they used to have hundreds of ducks. Now, plastic decoys floating around a neighbor's dock "are the only ducks we got left."
But the exotic visitor that alarms the Litseys and other adults is a fascinating turn of events for the middle-school aged boys in the neighborhood.
"We were swimming and I grabbed its tail," said Justin Osborne, 14.
"He's dumb like that," explained his friend Brandon Koss, 13.
"It turned around and tried to bite me and I let it go. It was really smooth."
In a lake already flush with water moccasins and the occasional alligator, how could one more reptile create a ruckus? It's a 4-foot-long Nile monitor, olive green with bright yellow spots, that's probably someone's former pet.
The monitor is curious about its surroundings and will cock its head to check out a visitor before quickly escaping into bushes or the nearby lake.
Although this monitor has surprised its new neighbors, the lizards aren't all that uncommon anymore, and that's a big problem, said Kevin Enge, a reptile expert with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
"There's escaped monitors all over the place," Enge said. "They can live anywhere in peninsular Florida and survive the winters."
The Hartley Circle monitor may be the third found in Deltona this year. City officials couldn't provide exact details this week, but they say one monitor was picked up on Opal Court in September, about five miles away. In that same neighborhood, residents on Partridge Street said the city picked up another monitor in March.
Many monitor lizard species are prized as pets by reptile lovers because they're curious, smart and animated. They start out small and cute. The lizards can be picked up at pet stores when they're less than a foot long for about $40.
But, state officials say, many novice pet owners aren't so thrilled with the lizards once they reach3, 4 or 5 feet long. And that's when the trouble starts. The pets either escape or are let go and find bountiful resources.
It's an example of a growing problem with the wildly popular exotic pet trade. State officials say it's creating an exotic invasion that's threatening native species.
It's an issue the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is struggling with, and one that Commissioner Herky Huffman, an Enterprise resident, is determined to regulate.
It's against the law, punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail, to release exotic pets or let them escape, but that hasn't stemmed the tide of exotic pets escaping into the wilds -- or suburban neighborhoods -- of Florida.
In its homeland of Africa, the Nile monitor has the widest range of any monitor species. In Florida, young, small monitors can be eaten by alligators, hawks and other birds of prey, but once they get beyond a certain size they're at the top of the food chain. They're known for their ability to thrive in all kinds of circumstances and for voracious appetites. They'll eat most anything, including birds, bugs and rodents. They climb trees, run fast and can hold their breath underwater for up to an hour. They reach lengths up to 7 feet.
The monitors are an example of the dozens of species of exotic frogs, snakes, lizards, birds and fish that have established breeding colonies in Florida. For example, 180 pythons have been removed from the Everglades since 1996. The state has twice as many exotic lizard species as native species, ranging from tiny geckos to monitors.
The commission has talked about restricting the more invasive species, so fewer people would be allowed to keep them as pets. But some enthusiasts have resisted such rules.
Even some of the herpetologists in the industry say the field needs more regulation.
"The laws have gotten more strict, but they're not that strict," said Frederick Bohler, a former reptile keeper at the Central Florida Zoo. Bohler also is a state licensed wildlife trapper who is working with folks on Lake Lapanocea to try to catch the monitor and find it a good home with a more responsible owner.
"These lizards really decimate our fauna in the areas they're in," Bohler said.
The commission doesn't require cities or trappers to report monitor captures, but that could change. The state may want to respond more quickly to certain escapee reports, Enge said, to try to prevent the more invasive species from setting up housekeeping.
They wish they could have done it in Cape Coral in Southwest Florida.
The state doesn't know how the monitors got there in 1990, but the lizards quickly made the most of their surroundings. By the time officials realized how bad the problem was, there were hundreds of monitors and they'd begun moving off the island to other locations.
"Once they start dispersing, it's probably too late to eradicate them," Enge said. "We hope to be able to keep them from spreading."
In May this year, he said, a Cape Coral homeowner found a monitor killing a juvenile burrowing owl, a dwindling native species of pint-sized owls.
There's one positive note. The exotic lizards are feasting on other invasive exotic species. One researcher, who has captured more than 100 monitors in Cape Coral, examines the contents of their stomachs to see what they eat. He found 14 Cuban tree frogs in one lizard and another major food source is the brown anole, a smaller exotic lizard.
Did You Know?
· There are 44 species of monitor lizards worldwide, with the majority native to Africa, Australia and Asia.
· The Nile monitor Varanus niloticus is the longest lizard in Africa, reaching up to 95 inches long, and can weigh as much as 22 pounds.
· The Nile monitor is the second-most commonly sold African monitor species in the U.S.
· Carnivores, they eat crabs, mussels, fish, lizards, snakes, bird, eggs and carrion, among other things.
· Large females lay between 53 and 60 eggs at time.
· They are not believed to be dangerous to humans, but can inflict nasty bites if cornered. An Australian scientist recently concluded monitors are venomous.
Source: The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Lake's newest reptilian resident creates a stir

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