Partly Cloudy With A Chance of Lizards

“It’s officially raining iguanas in South Florida,” tweeted NBC 6 South Florida reporter Cristian Benavides.

That’s what happens when the temperature drops into the 40s or below. Palm Beach Zoo zoologist Stacey Cohen explained the issue to WPBF television: “Their bodies basically start to shut down where they lose their functions and so they are up in the trees on the branches sleeping and then because it gets so cold, they lose that ability to hang on and then they do fall out of trees a lot.”

Over the weekend temperatures in South Florida reached a low of 25 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Fortunately the cold weather is not expected to persist so most of the fallen will, one hopes, survive. (An extended cold snap here in 2010 wiped out huge numbers of green iguanas.)

It is no surprise that these particular lizards are not native to Florida. They most likely snuck in accidentally, stowaways from Central and South America, on cargo ships. They can grow to over five feet long and weigh up to 17 pounds, so it would be prudent to stay away from South Florida trees for a couple days.

A Hollywood, FL Instagram user documented some of the fallen here: www.instagram.com/p/CZXJCYll1b8/.

Photo credit: National Weather Service / Miami