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NEWS-PRESS (Fort Myers, Florida) 12 February 06 Reptile invasion - Myth, misunderstanding surround monitor lizards (Charles Runnells)
Recent news has undoubtedly sent some Cape Coral people searching their canals and backyards for a glimpse of the city's elusive monitor lizards.
But Michael Orchin doesn't have to look far at all.
He just walks into his living room.
For about four months, Orchin has been feeding and caring for the tiny lizard in a glass aquarium. Eventually, the lizard could grow from its current 1-foot length — tail and all — to 6 feet or more.
"I'd have to build a big pen in the back yard," Orchin said and smiled.
While it's not unusual for someone to own a Nile monitor lizard — they're still legal in Florida, despite their bad reputation — this wild lizard came as part of a Cape trapping program to rid the city of the ravenous critters. Officials worry the lizards could destroy the city's population of native wildlife, including the threatened burrowing owl.
Orchin, president of the animal advocacy group Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife, plans to use the lizard as an educational tool at local festivals and meetings in the coming months.
"People are always asking me questions about them," he explained.
Some officials estimate Cape Coral has thousands of Nile monitor lizards, and those big creatures have been making bigger headlines lately.
Federal wildlife officials are coming to Cape Coral on Wednesday to learn more about the lizard situation. They'll also attend a 6:30 p.m. workshop to answer residents' questions. The meeting will take place at the council chambers in City Hall.
Orchin hopes public support opens purse strings in Washington, and that they'll send trappers, biologists and other experts later this year to help control the lizard population.
Or, perhaps, exterminate it.
"For every one of these you see," Orchin explains, "there are probably 10 you don't see."
Orchin is particularly concerned about the lizards' effect on burrowing owls. The first documented case of a lizard killing an owl occurred last year when a Cape resident saw the owl in a lizard's mouth.
The Friends of Wildlife has made it its mission to look after the city's owls. It even throws the annual Burrowing Owl Festival, which happens Saturday at Rotary Park.
The Cape Coral area has the largest concentration of Nile monitors in the state, wildlife experts say. That's largely due to its canals and undeveloped banks, where the lizards can burrow.
The lizards recently jumped to Sanibel Island, and federal officials and wildlife experts worry they could spread throughout Florida and the rest of the country.
Still, there are a lot of misconceptions about monitor lizards, and that's why Orchin got one for himself.
Many people, it turns out, don't even know the difference between a monitor lizard and the Cape's other prominent, non-native lizard, the iguana.
Iguanas are docile creatures that eat mostly plants and bugs. Aggressive Nile monitors will eat whatever eggs and small animals they can find.
"They're big enough that they could probably catch and kill a small pet," said Kraig Hankins, a city biologist overseeing Cape Coral's lizard-trapping program.
Iguanas have blocky heads and spiked backs, while monitor lizards are much more streamlined — all the better to zip through the water.
"They're kind of like snakes with legs," Hankins said. "And if you get close enough, you can see their forked tongue. But your probably won't get that close."
Despite popular belief, the lizards aren't poisonous, Hankins said. But their bacteria-filled mouths — largely due to their eat-anything-not-tied-down diet — could make someone sick if they got bit.
Many people think the lizards will come after their small children, but there's no real reason to worry about that, said Todd Campbell, a biologist with the University of Tampa who is studying the lizards and how to wipe them out. He isn't aware of a single case of an unprovoked monitor lizard attacking a human. Usually, they're just defending themselves when cornered.
He doesn't even know any confirmed cases of a lizard eating someone's pet — although there have been "tons" of anecdotal accounts of mauled rabbits and cats that suddenly went missing, he said.
However, Campbell said he still wouldn't leave an infant unattended in an unfenced yard — just in case. In science, you never say never.
"Why take the chance?" he said.
Nile monitor lizards have lived in Cape Coral for about 15 years. They're likely the product of people who bought them for pets, then dumped them outside when the creatures got too big and aggressive.
The lizards can travel long distances. One lizard Campbell tracked via radio transmitter ran and swam 1 kilometer in just one morning.
That quick movement, coupled with their aggressiveness, makes them a huge threat to other wildlife, he said.
There's nothing else like monitor lizards in Florida or the United States, Campbell said. They have no natural predators, and they have the potential of upsetting the ecosystem wherever they go.
"They're like the pythons," Campbell said, referring to the nonnative creatures vying with alligators for supremacy in the Everglades. "Only this is probably bigger, because they have the potential to spread farther."
Meanwhile, Orchin expects to cart his own lizard around to show people what they're up against.
When a reporter recently came to his house, Orchin walked up to his living room aquarium — one of them, anyway; he has turtles, snakes and other creatures at his house — and fished out the foot-long lizard. Its long tail quickly wrapped around his wrist.
The lizard hissed quietly in his hand and made a few weak attempts to bite him.
"Oh, give it a rest," Orchin said.
He keeps the lizard under a hot light and feeds it a diet of store-bought monitor lizard food and the occasional nightcrawler or grasshopper.
Despite himself, Orchin said he's gotten slightly attached to the creature. And he hates the thought of it eventually getting euthanized.
It's not lizards' fault that they were dumped into the wild and forced to survive, Orchin said.
"They're just being what they are," he said. "They're just doing that in the wrong place."
Myth, misunderstanding surround monitor lizards

NEWS-PRESS (Fort Myers, Florida) 12 February 06 Officials, shops put squeeze on monitors - Cape gets help in bid to eliminate lizards (Charles Runnells)
While Cape Coral and other areas get tough on monitor lizards, the creatures still remain legal as pets.
But don't count on finding the predator available in stores.
Most pet stores don't carry the voracious lizards, mainly because of their reputation.
Scientists fret Nile monitors could destroy Cape Coral's burrowing owls and whatever else they can get their jaws around. And, if unchecked, the large lizards could spread throughout Lee County and Florida.
They already popped up last year in Sanibel. Who knows where they could show up next?
"I won't sell them because of the problems we're having," said Tom Guscinski, owner of Discount Pets in Cape Coral. "People will just let these things loose, and that'll destroy the ecosystem around here."
That's probably how they ended up hanging out near Cape Coral's canals and waterways in the first place. People likely bought them as pets years ago, and then quickly dumped them when they got to be 4 to 6 feet long, ravenous and mean-spirited.
Scientists and city officials estimate there are thousands of Nile monitor lizards roaming the Cape. That's the largest population in Florida and perhaps in North America.
U.S. officials are taking note. They're coming to Cape Coral Wednesday to survey the city's lizard program, and they're considering sending trappers and biologists to assist the city's trapping program later this year.
There also will be a 6:30 p.m. meeting at City Hall to answer questions.
Karleen Canas said she's glad monitors are getting the attention they deserve. Last May, Canas discovered the first confirmed case of a monitor lizard eating a burrowing owl.
"It's frightening," Canas said. "If something is not done, they're going to take over."
Because of all this publicity, the lizards' popularity appears to be waning. Pet shops report there isn't much interest anymore.
IF YOU GO
• What: Public meeting about the Nile monitor lizard
• When: 6:30-8:30. p.m. on Wednesday
• Where: Council chambers at Cape Coral City Hall, 1015 Cultural Park Blvd.
Officials, shops put squeeze on monitors