Aurora Starchild
A Florida man is on video battling with a stray iguana. The iguana was on his very decked-out Christmas tree. The man thought a pool skimmer was an appropriate tool to remove the lizard. This was in the midst of a statewide “Iguana Warning.” Only in Florida and no, this isn’t a joke!
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Cold Temps Can Make Iguanas Fall Out of Trees, Damage People & Property
The arctic bomb cyclone that hit a large portion of the United States over the Christmas weekend rendered much of the Sunshine State below-freezing temperatures. When this happens, iguanas become immobilized, and their lives are threatened. They can fall from trees and, if the will to live is strong enough, seek shelter.
“Their bodies basically start to shut down,” reptile expert and zoologist Stacey Cohen told Reuters. “They’ll lost their functions and so they’re up on the trees on the branches sleeping. And then, because they get so cold, they lose that ability to hang on. And then they do fall out of trees a lot.”
Cohen added that cold temperatures are life-threatening to iguanas because they originate from equatorial locations.
Florida Man Has Epic Battle With Iguana in His Christmas Tree
For one Florida man, an iguana found solace not only in his house but on his Christmas tree. It seems only natural, that the little dude would want to hang out in the tree. But the people who lived there didn’t seem to welcome their four-legged visitors.
In a video posted by WINK News, a dog can be heard barking in the background as a blue pool skimmer is attempting to catch the iguana on the Christmas tree. The man stays off-screen as a woman’s voice is urging him to try harder to catch the lizard.
Then the iguana climbs up to the top before falling down the backside of the tree. It takes several ornaments down with it. No doubt, the iguana must have been terrified, but it managed to hold on to the tree.
The video has already garnered over 400K views. To a non-Floridian, my thoughts are with the iguana. It’s so cute! To someone who may be dealing with an iguana-falling-out-of-tree epidemic, it’s probably not as cute.
