The Great Iguana Invasion: They Seem To Be Everywhere, But No One Knows Just How Many Are Around Us

Iguana removal experts say this year be might record-setting in the number of invasive reptiles that are creeping around South Florida. There's no way to get a firm estimate of the exact number of invasive iguanas in the state. They haven't been counted because state resources have been put in other areas, like the fight to eradicate burmese python out of the Everglades, said Joe Wasilewski, a conservation biologist and president of environmental consulting firm Natural Selections of South Florida. “Since the iguanas are more vegetarian and less likely to get 18-feet long, less funding and effort was spent on them," he said. "And what happened in the interim, their population literally exploded.” Iguanas have been in Florida since the 1960s, but there has been a noted increase in "human conflicts," according to Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) exotic species coordinator Kristin Sommers in an interview with the Associated Press. In the Florida Keys, the animals have been