Reptile & Amphibian Forums

SUN-HERALD (Charlotte, Florida) 12 September 07 Sanibel to trap exotic lizards and iguanas (Jess Fisher)
The City of Sanibel will begin trapping exotic lizards and iguanas to protect the island’s natural wildlife.
On Friday, the city will mail all residents, property and business owners an educational brochure about it’s lizard management program.
A growing population of invasive Nile Monitor lizards and Green Iguanas are target of the program.
“Both lizards have no natural predators on Sanibel. They are considered a severe risk to the island ecosystem,” said Judy Zimomra, city manager. “The lizards were most likely released by irresponsible pet owners.”
There have been two confirmed sightings of Nile Monitor lizards and hundreds of Green Iguana sightings, Zimomra said.
According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, confirmed sightings of Nile Monitor lizards normally represent 20 percent of the total population.
All sightings will be investigated by a professional trapper, Zimomra said.
Trappers will be identified by a safety green colored shirt with the words “Lizard Control” printed on the front and back of the shirt, as well as magnetic decals on their vehicle.
Traps will placed and checked daily. Verified sightings will be mapped to focus eradication efforts and track population trends.
One Nile Monitor lizard was videotaped by a police officer crossing Periwinkle Way. A car ran over the lizard. It survived and ran off into the brush.
To protect the Island’s wildlife populations from increasing numbers of lizards and iguanas, Sanibel put together a group consisting of professionals from the Fish and Wildlife Service at the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation and city staff to develop an invasive lizard management program for Sanibel. The group presented its recommendations to City Council for approval Aug. 21.
Sanibel to trap exotic lizards

The PROBLEM IS, there is no natural habitat for native species(habitat specific) to live it. Its been modified by human development. Which mades is more suitable for non-native species(generalists).

No offense, but it does not take a brain surgeon to understand, native species, require native habitat. Without that, they cannot exsist. It really is not the evasives or ferals that is the problem. Its the humans changing the enviornment, and expecting species that florished in native habitats, to florish in non-native(new/different) habitats.

Its simply naive and foolish to think native species will live in non-native, non-natural habitats.

So what we have here is, dumb people, playing dumb games, and of course blaming everything but themselves. Its not the fault of invasives or ferals, its the fault of the people destroying the habitat, then expecting the species that use to live there to change what they "are" to fit this new "deranged" habitat.

I cannot help but believe, if these folks are biologists, they are the worlds stupidist biologists. Most likely they are politicians and as such, there actions are perfect for them.

With politicians, there is no need for a result, its the effort that is of value. So as long as they are making an effort that somehow can be called or linked to "conservation" their job is done. There is never an intend to allow native species to exsist there or return. If there was, they ALREADY know, you must have native habitat to return to or to exsist in. Not so cheerful bullbeans.

Frank, I agree with you on this. the biggest danger to native species, almost anywhere, is human encroachment on/into their habitat.

Maybe we should begin a sterilazation program for humans before it's too late.

Wait, I think it already is too late

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

While habitat degradation/destruction is definitely the major factor in the decline of native species (as well as the spread of invasives), what does complaining about it going to do to help prevent the further devastation caused by this particular species (Varanus niloticus) in Florida?

I think we can all agree that much of Florida's natural habitats have been altered by man. Many native species appear to be doing fine in anthropogenically-altered habitats, as well as in the few remaining primary habitats.

If you do not condone capturing these lizards in an effort to help limit/end their devastating effects on native wildlife, what alternative do you offer?

I do not see the government sanctioning the bulldozing of people's homes and businesses in an effort to reclaim natural habitat. The damage has been done in thes circumstances.

They can make an effort to prevent further development and habitat degradation, but what about the areas that are already developed, and already affected/threatened by V. niloticus? Trapping is a partial solution to solving this problem.

You can criticize biologists, ecologists, and conservationists all you would like, however sitting behind your computer screen complaining about a potential solution while offering nothing in exchange does not add much clout to your arguments.

Please share with us how you would go about irradicating this invasive, devastating species from suburban and industrial environments- one of the many areas which V. niloticus seem to be fond of inhabiting, keeping in mind that they are just as comfortable in undisturbed environments as well. How will protecting "natural habitat" end the effects of the monitors in these environments?

Are you advocating the Florida FWS to just 'forget about' the V. niloticus that have colonized southwestern Florida? Are they to just give up on their efforts to irradicate them? Is all lost?

Certainly not.

as Frank stated the nile monitors are not the problem. I live in central Florida and watch thousands of acres bulldozed daily. Wow a nile may eat a few animals here and there but everytime a shopping center is put in thousands of species die. I'm all for conservation but removing the niles is only a bandaid to the effects on natural popluations. As houses, shopping centers, factories, roads, etc move into what was once wilderness then animals are packed into patches of the remaining ecosystem. The patches cannot support many animals so sooner or later die offs are going to happen. Funny story, I was watching the news not to long ago. There was a thing about a housing complex going in and would clear out several arces. Gopher tortises were know to live in the area. After several test all gopher tortises were "said to be sick" so the bulldozing began, lol. Tortises were fine till a housing complex came into play. Money talks in Florida and when so one is getting enough kick backs it wouldn't matter if Big Foot was discovered. If the last remaining big foot family was found in Florida where a shopping center had been zoned then I'm willing to bet that they would magically be sick (have aids or something) so killing them off was only humain or moving them into a zoo for safety. LOL
We may need the niles to clean up the dead after Florida plows everything under.

Trapping the present population is probably the only solution to this situation, and I don't have a problem with that. My problem is with the humans who don't consider the outcome of what they do to the wild, all in the name of progress. I probably should have been born three or four hundred years ago.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

No offense, but its not those niles thats the problem, they are only a placeholder. If its not them, it would be something else.

Have you ever been to Fla. There are thousands of non-native species. Plants, animals, insects, fish, birds, reptiles, etc. Its not NILES vs. man. Or niles vs. native species. The whole bloody thing of out of balance.

I lived in Fla in the early seventies, since that time, there has been a parade of invasives COME AND GO. Kissing bugs plugging up your cars radiator, windshield wipers rendered useless. THen walking catfish were going to take over the world. Etc etc etc etc. Boars, apes, monkeys, and yes, monitors, and crocs and caimen were released back then, but the habitat did not support them for long periods of time. Now the habitat has changed to a point, its clearly not the Fla, it use to be.

Its simple biology, as the land becomes less suitable for native species, it will become more suitable for non native species. Its the habitat, not the species that needs help.

Return the habitat to what supports native species and it will support native species. Clearly native species are not equiped to compete with non natives in altered habitat.

It appears there's no workable solution, it will continue to get worse and worse. Even if you kill off all niles. Something else will simply take its place. It appears, mankind is not going to protect natural lands in fla. They are not going to stop building and building and changing the water courses. Until it does, its a losing effort. Cheers

Hello,

In this specific situation you have to be local to know the real story behind the "craze". The Nile monitors are accused of encroaching into human habitation and terrorizing neighborhoods- yes, you read that right! Studies have already shown that they are feeding on the natural foods that Niles like- fish, frogs, mudbugs and rats. The real underlying problem is that certain groups are able to obtain funding for eradication programs, so in FL where there are so many invasives, there is big money to be made- even tax dollars... There are already programs for burms, Niles, iguanas, pouched rats, even wild pigs that have been here over 500 years- you'd think they'd have already destroyed the whole environment after 500 years, right! The other problems, real problems that should have support such as the black and norwegian rats (which are truly destructive egg and baby eaters of birds and reptiles) are never mentioned publicly. As such the parrots- Amazons, quakers, Macaws, they are never mentioned either. It's about people and money not the environment- I have found traps put out with no bait in them and some that have bones laying in them that were never checked again checked to see if there was a capture- is this euthanasia? But they will succeed in getting all of us who care about the environment to pay for programs with no end date. Best to you- Mike

I could not agree more Mike and FR. What makes me even more sick then the idea that the natural population is being destroyed is the fact that they are building new shopping centers, houses, and offices when there isn't even a market right now. Florida is currently second for house foreclosures and I see several new buildings with no one in them as well abandonned buildings here and there.
ITS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY AND KICK BACKS IN FLORIDA- sometimes they use the envirnoment problems to make money, justify actions, etc but it is rarely just for the good of the envirnoment

Where can I get a "Lizard Control" shirt?!!
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Mampam Conservation

Hi Daniel, how its going, what have you been up to?

Why don't you post much anymore. Cheers

St. Pete Times 9/26/2003:

Meet the neighbors

Cape Coral covers 114 square miles, the second-largest area among Florida cities; only Jacksonville is larger. (Tampa is about 110 square miles, St. Petersburg just under 61.)

Washed by Matlacha Pass and the Caloosahatchee River, Cape Coral wears a thick hem of mangroves on much of its shoreline. The city's huge network of canals was dug back in the 1970s, and thousands of acres were cleared. But development went bust, and for years much of the land sat vacant.

Now, wedged between bustling Fort Myers and the resorts of Sanibel and Captiva, Cape Coral is playing out its destiny as a bedroom community. In 1980, the population was about 32,000. By 2000, it had exploded to 102,000, and last year it was just shy of 113,000.

The combination of large areas of undeveloped land, water, woods and diggable banks is Nile monitor paradise, and research in their native Africa has found that, though they eat everything from roadkill to other lizards, their favorite food is eggs: birds' eggs, snakes' eggs, even the eggs of crocodiles.

Campbell first came to Cape Coral years before he heard about the Nile monitors, to help with a survey of the burrowing owl, a species of special concern (meaning it may be on the road to endangerment) in Florida.

Cape Coral has the most dense population of burrowing owls in the state. The owls nest on the ground, laying their eggs in small burrows: a virtual Nile monitor buffet.

Kraig Hankins, an environmental biologist for Cape Coral, was the first person to track Nile monitors. Campbell heard about the animals from Hankins and Ken Krysko at the University of Florida Museum of Natural History.

Hankins, whose work focuses on water quality, says, "I just started keeping track of these reports because I thought somebody should." The city first got reports of "a Komodo dragonlike thing" in 1990 or '91, and occasional reports came in throughout the '90s.

After stories in local newspapers about a year and a half ago, Hankins says, the reports increased. It soon became clear the animals were already all over the city.

Sightings have been most numerous in Cape Coral's southwest quadrant. Hankins says, "The last burrowing owl survey showed they had declined in the southwest cape. Is it the monitors? Is it development? We don't know."

The only way to determine the lizards' impact is research. "We need bodies to prove they're here," Hankins says. And that is why Klowden spends 80 hours a month sloshing through ponds and scrambling down canal banks with a cooler full of reeking squid.

Hello,
Such statements as "a virtual Nile Monitor buffet" with reference to burrowing owls has no basis and no place in a report about these animals because it is speculation and has never been proven that they chose these or any other eggs as a food source here in FL. All of the ones that I have trapped are filled with fish, frogs, crayfish and other bugs and Asian black rats- which are not native here and are a serious problem invading homes and carrying fleas, ticks and diseases. Sorry, I would have responded sooner but a tornado opened my house to the sky! Best to you- Mike

Why do you come here and push and poke, trying to stir up a fight, then run off????? Thats very transparent you know.

Why not use your name, you know, man up, be real, and really pursue your cause(whatever that is). You know, honestly and straitforeword.

To hide behind a silly primitive mammal name and attempt to cause arguements, then run and lay an egg is very naive of you(primitive) But I guess thats all you can expect from a monotreme. Cheers

Does Monotreme rhyme with Odatria if you get what I mean Frank?

Yes, this person's posts are totally consistent with Bob's writing style.