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<\/p>\nPROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) \u2014 Wildlife officials say a \u201clizard in a blizzard\u201d has been rescued after a man discovered the large cold-blooded reptile buried in snow in Rhode Island, somehow surviving the frigid temperatures. <\/p>\n
According to the New England Wildlife Center, the Providence man spotted the tegu lizard from his driveway on Tuesday. The reptile was quickly brought it indoors and wrapped in a T-shirt to help conserve heat.<\/p>\n
ET Reptiles, a reptile store based in Rhode Island, agreed to pick up the tegu and take it to an animal hospital. There, veterinarians found the tegu to be \u201cextremely weak, underweight, and not moving well.\u201d The tegu\u2019s tongue had also suffered frostbite and muscle weakness due to prolonged exposure to the cold \u2014 a circumstance that leads to cell failure in cold-blooded animals in low temperatures.<\/p>\n
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\n This photo provided by the New England Wildlife Center shows a tegu lizard which was found buried in snow in Providence, R.I., in late January 2025. (New England Wildlife Center via AP)\n <\/p>\n
This photo provided by the New England Wildlife Center shows a tegu lizard which was found buried in snow in Providence, R.I., in late January 2025. (New England Wildlife Center via AP)<\/p>\n
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\n This photo provided by the New England Wildlife Center shows a tegu lizard which was found buried in snow in Providence, R.I., in late January 2025. (New England Wildlife Center via AP)\n <\/p>\n
This photo provided by the New England Wildlife Center shows a tegu lizard which was found buried in snow in Providence, R.I., in late January 2025. (New England Wildlife Center via AP)<\/p>\n
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Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n
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A small portion of the tegu\u2019s tongue was amputated to help with its recovery. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe is now resting comfortably and finally warm, which makes all the difference!\u201d the wildlife center said in a social media post. \u201cWe will be rooting for a good outcome and will share updates as we have them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The center says it\u2019s unknown if the lizard escaped on its own from wherever it was being kept or was abandoned.<\/p>\n
The black and white lizards are native to South America and have become popular in the pet trade. They have become known as an invasive species in certain states, like Florida, as more owners who had intended to keep them as pets abandon them into the wild. They can grow to 4 feet (122 centimeters) long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) \u2014 Wildlife officials say a \u201clizard in a blizzard\u201d has been rescued after a man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2837,49,48,2848,2847,2841,164569,3336,18158,41168,30843,66,176726,19235,2845,1133,323],"class_list":["post-447092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-general-news","tag-lizards","tag-massachusetts","tag-oddities","tag-providence","tag-rhode-island","tag-science","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-south-america","tag-u-s-news","tag-weather","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}