BOCA BEACON (Boca Grande, Florida) 24 December 04 GICIA-sponsored iguana roundup lands just six lizards
At times over this past weekend, there were more iguana "rescuers" visible on Gasparilla Island than the scaly lizards they were trying to trap.
Jamie Mitchell and her husband Mark, Pinellas County residents who operate a "reptile rescue" operation, made a much-publicized attempt to catch some of the island's estimated 10,000 black spiny iguanas. They were aided by a few volunteers, some who later criticized the event as "unorganized" and poorly planned.
"That thing was a joke," said T.J. Ramirez, a Hernando County resident and reptile keeper who drove for almost three hours in hopes of adopting a captured iguana.
"Extremely poor planning," was how Matthew Lyons, who came with Ramirez, politely characterized the capture attempt. "It was just a disaster."
The two men said they had been told by a friend that the iguanas on Gasparilla Island were "as thick as cockroaches" and that the locals were indiscriminately shooting and clubbing them.
Prior to coming to Boca Grande, Mitchell had fearlessly predicted that she could nab 100 iguanas a day. They would be humanely captured, domesticated as pets and given to trustworthy reptile collectors, she said.
"That's a preposterous idea, to think you can capture 100 per day," said Denis Bousquet, a Naples resident and reptile breeder who holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Marquette University. "In a 10-hour day, you'd have to catch one every six minutes. Even if you can capture 100 a day, each iguana female can lay 30 to 60 eggs two to three times a year."
Bousquet was extremely critical of the news media, which he said had raised false hopes that Mitchell could eradicate the pests from the island.
In newspaper reports, Mitchell claimed she had paid home visits to 300 people who had been certified to receive the reptiles, and that she had "guaranteed homes" for 2,000 more.
"You cannot domesticate a wild iguana to become a domestic pet," Bousquet said. "Iguanas are the most dumped reptile, because they can be so aggressive. All the iguanas in pet stores were either captive bred or dug up as eggs and hand-raised."
Mitchell did not respond to repeated requests from the Beacon for an interview.
No official number of iguanas captured was given by the Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association, which sponsored and promoted the event. In a press release issued Tuesday, Dec. 21, GICIA development director Sarah Watkins wrote, "Nevertheless, all the hard work of Saturday resulted in a few captures for removal."
Pressed for a figure, Watkins hesitantly said she thought the number was six.
Volunteers said only two iguanas were captured on Saturday, despite over five hours of intense effort by a crew of about 14 people.
Mitchell's operation was hampered by the weather. Being cold-blooded, iguanas are most active on hot, sunny days. The high on Saturday was 70, the low 53, with partly cloudy conditions.
"Right now is not a good time to be hunting them. Because of the cool weather, they will be hiding and less active," Bousquet said. "On Saturday, many of the iguanas were probably either hiding in gopher tortoise burrows or enjoying the warmth under heated houses."
The weather wasn't Mitchell's only problem. Her request for a permit to capture iguanas in Gasparilla Island State Park was denied. Spokesman Matt Mitchell (no relation) said the Park Service couldn't condone Mitchell's plan to give the captured iguanas to private reptile collectors.
"That's how we got in trouble in the first place," Matt Mitchell said, referring to the iguanas' local origins when a disenchanted collector released them on the island in the early 1970s. "We'd just as soon have the ones in the park remain there so we can eliminate them by other means."
Jamie Mitchell and her husband Mark spent Friday afternoon trying to find out where most of the iguanas were hiding out and giving interviews to television news crews.
Shortly after the group arrived at a local motel, where Jamie Mitchell had obtained four donated rooms, she took a dead iguana out of the trunk of her car and began dissecting it with her bare hands to give them an "anatomy lesson."
"You could smell it 10 feet away. It was making me queasy," Ramirez said.
"It seemed like it didn't bother her a bit," Lyons said. "She lit a cigarette and smoked it while telling us how they carry all these diseases."
The catchers didn't find any iguanas on the first private property they searched, so they moved into a condominium development by the beach where an iguana was caught.
Although it was only about nine to 12 inches long, and too small to be a sexually mature adult, Jamie Mitchell identified it as a pregnant female and said she was taking it back to her hotel room to inject it with a chemical that would force it to lay its eggs.
That chemical was most likely the labor-inducing drug oxytocin, said Dr. Cynthia Fiore with the Animal Clinic in Port Charlotte. "She can't get that drug without approval from the Food and Drug Administration. I don't know what her background is, but she shouldn't have that medication without a veterinary license."
Although news reports had said a veterinarian would accompany the rescuers, the volunteers said they didn't see one on Saturday.
Ramirez said he was discouraged by the disorganization and wandered across the street onto some state park property. "I immediately saw a 3 1/2-foot iguana dive into its burrow, and I instantly knew that every single iguana of any size was on state land," he said. "Every eight steps I was seeing a 3-foot lizard dive into its hole, and on the other side of the street the idiots were chasing 'ghost iguanas.'"
Ramirez said that when two reporters showed up, and he began talking to them, Jamie Mitchell yelled at him to stop, then told him he was "terminated."
"We had been instructed when we got there not to talk to the press because they were a liability," Ramirez explained, "because they might get bitten by the 'vicious' iguanas, and might write something bad about them."
The GICIA thanked the Mitchells and the volunteers for their efforts. "The over-population of iguanas is a problem that has been years in the making and one that will not be resolved in one weekend," Watkins stated.
Bousquet was critical of the media for taking Jamie Mitchell's claims at face value.
"The local TV media bought into it hook, line and sinker, and I don't think they did any research," he said. "They didn't contact any biologists or any environmental people."
The iguana population on Gasparilla Island is now so large it has become self-sustaining, Bousquet said, and cannot be removed. But that fact was politically unacceptable.
"People don't want to let others know the truth because it becomes a political hot button," Bousquet explained. "Other people don't tell the truth so they can get re-elected, and a perceived problem gets a perceived solution."
http://www.bocabeacon.com/story.htbml?number=715
BOCA BEACON (Boca Grande, Florida) 24 December 04 Text of GICIA statement on iguana hunt
The following statement was issued by Sarah D. Watkins, the Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association's development director, in the aftermath of the attempted iguana roundup of Friday and Saturday, Dec. 17-18.
Most residents of Gasparilla Island had high hopes of waving goodbye and good riddance to a few hundred of the island's unwelcome squatters this past weekend. Mother Nature seemed to be on the side of the iguanas as the area's recent cold spell sent most of them to their underground bunkers making it extremely difficult to extract the wily reptiles for removal.
Jamie and Mark Mitchell, volunteer reptile rescue specialists from Pinellas County, came to Boca Grande on Friday afternoon, Dec. 17, as planned.
The Mitchells spent the afternoon hours of the 17th scouting Gasparilla Island, seeking out areas offering the highest concentration of iguanas and planning for the rescue effort on Saturday. The colder than usual temperatures meant that there were few iguanas to be seen in their customary locations on the beach, sunning on tree trucks, or lazing on the roadside.
This weekend's iguana removal effort was the first such attempt for Boca Grande. The hunt for iguanas continued all through Saturday, Dec. 18, with a majority of the time spent in the Charlotte County portion of the island. Nevertheless, all the hard work of Saturday resulted in few captures for removal. A new date has not yet been set for a follow-up capture and removal effort with the Mitchell's. However, the Gasparilla Island Conservation & Improvement Association (GICIA) will coordinate with the Mitchell's should they determine another attempt is warranted during the warmer months of summer.
Thanks are extended to the Mitchells and their volunteers for making a best effort in spite of the lack of cooperation by the weather. The over population of iguanas is a problem that has been years in the making and one that will not be resolved in one weekend.
Persistence and innovation will continue to play a valuable part in resolving the challenging problem of dealing with the unwanted iguana population of the island. The GICIA will continue to coordinate with Lee County officials and staff in the quest to find an effective and humane method of controlling the iguana population. The important thing is to try again and again until a successful solution is reached and the iguana numbers can be reduced to a manageable population.
http://www.bocabeacon.com/story.htbml?number=719
SUN-HERALD (Charlotte, Florida) December 04 Volunteer effort nets two iguanas
Boca Grande: Round one goes to the iguanas.
A small volunteer effort to capture Gasparilla Island's nuisance reptiles netted just two iguanas over the weekend.
Cold temperatures -- Sunday had a low of 45 degrees -- kept the reptiles close to or in their burrows, making it difficult for Mark and Jamie Mitchell, reptile rescue specialists from Pinellas County, to snare the animals.
The pair surveyed the island Friday and attempted the capture Saturday, said Misty Nabers of the Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association.
Most of the work was done on the Charlotte County portion of the island.
The Mitchells called off the hunt Sunday because of continuing chilly temperatures.
"There just wasn't an opportunity to catch them," Nabers said.
The weekend search needed a special resolution from Lee County Commissioners, said Commissioner Bob Janes, adding the county doesn't have an ordinance that governs such activity.
Association officials hope the Mitchells will resume their effort this summer, when the island's iguanas sun themselves along beaches, roads and parking lots.
If the hunt is successful, the Mitchells would sell the iguanas to reptile enthusiasts with no chance of being released back into the wild, Nabers said.
Wildlife officials believe Boca Grande's problems with the lizards began years ago when a few were imported as pets from Mexico and then released on the island.
Now the iguana population is estimated at 3,000.
"There's no way (the Mitchells) could make a serious impact," Nabers said.
Lee County's Department of Animal Services wouldn't even be able to manage the undertaking, said Scott Trebatoski, department director.
"It's way outside our scope of services," Trebatoski said. "It's going to take some real ingenuity."
Trebatoski said Animal Services has about six methods of capturing domestic animals that it could apply to the iguanas.
The reptiles must be caught and killed humanely, he added.
Commissioners, meanwhile, directed staff Dec. 14 to investigate other alternatives to permanently remove the iguanas from Gasparilla Island.
How that will be done, who will do it and how much it will cost are still unknown, Trebatoski said.
County officials are assessing the situation.
"I know the county really wants to get this moving forward," Trebatoski said, "but doing it haphazardly isn't going to benefit anyone."
Trebatoski said he hoped the project would go to bid in the coming months.
But county officials aren't even sure how to bid out a project like this. None of the businesses initially interested in taking the job have made offers.
"It's really up in the air," Trebatoski said.
Talk of removing the iguanas peaked Nov. 17 when residents packed a GICIA public meeting about the reptiles.
Residents called them ugly and a nuisance. Environmental specialists called them dangerous to local wildlife.
"We have a non-native species taking over the island," Janes said. "We just have to look to see what we can do."
Iguanas, growing up to three feet, eat everything, from sea turtle hatchlings and mice to native plants and gopher tortoise and bird eggs. And since they're not native to the island, they have few enemies.
As Trebatoski put it, "they're not pet store" iguanas.
Once a removal plan is decided, island residents would be taxed to fund the project.
Trebatoski said it would be best to pay per iguana head, rather than a flat fee.
"I think that would be fairest to the taxpayers," Trebatoski said.
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/122404/tp9ew9.htm?date=122404&story=tp9ew9.htm
