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MAUI NEWS (Wailuku, Hawaii) 12 April 06 Leaping lizards! Girl sights iguana in Kahului
Kahului: Lori Naluai, an outreach worker at Mental Health Kokua, was driving her 7-year-old daughter to Emmanuel Lutheran School on Tuesday morning when the girl spotted something she’d never seen before – at least not live on Maui.
At about 7:50 a.m., Naluai was at the intersection of Wahinepio and Kaahumanu avenues, where traffic was backing up near the Maui Community College dormitories.
Naluai said she heard her daughter, Victoria, mention two little birds and say: "Mom . . . the lizard’s going to get the bird."
A skeptical Naluai said she was thinking, yeah, right, before she saw the tail end of a 2- to 2 1/2-foot-long lizard.
"Holy moly! That’s an iguana!" she recalled saying. "It was freaky. I thought it was a dog or a cat."
The iguana scurried off into brush on a sand hill between the MCC dorms and Keopuolani Park, Naluai said. She pulled over, called 911 and state and county officials came to search the area and take pictures of tracks left by the creature.
Janelle Saneishi, public information officer for the state Department of Agriculture, said that agriculture officials searched the area for about two hours. Members of the Maui Invasive Species Committee also assisted in the search of a heavy brush area, she said, adding that the hunt likely would continue this morning because the reptile wasn’t found.
She said officials found what "looked like claw marks in the sand."
Saneishi said officials weren’t ready to say what was spotted or what left evidence of being there.
She said there was "some physical evidence of something there." Officials are "taking it as a credible sighting," Saneishi said.
Park groundskeepers were notified about the sighting, she said.
At least a half-dozen iguanas have been captured on Oahu in Waipahu, Waianae and Waimanalo, she said.
Saneishi said officials could set traps for the creature, but that had not been discussed as an option as of Tuesday afternoon.
She said it’s illegal to possess and transport iguanas in Hawaii, where they could become an agricultural pest. The reptiles feed on nesting birds and eggs. They also eat fruits and vegetables.
Iguanas are native to Central Mexico and South America, she said.
Naluai said her daughter, a 2nd-grader, was late to school Tuesday morning, but she had an exciting tale to share with her classmates.
Girl sights iguana in Kahului

Interesting. I live in Honolulu (my iguana is with my parents on the mainland)). It would be nice if we can have Igaunas here. I don't understand why the gov't thinks an igauna is worse to the environment than Hummers are.