![\"rescued](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769818151_881_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
New England Wildlife Center<\/p>\nTypically, when you\u2019re shoveling snow, you don\u2019t expect to uncover anything beyond, well, more snow.<\/p>\n
But recently, a Providence, Rhode Island, resident was out shoveling nearly 20 inches of snow from his driveway when he dug up something he never expected \u2014 a huge black and white reptile.<\/p>\n
New England Wildlife Center<\/p>\n
The animal was a tegu, a large lizard native to Central and South America. In Rhode Island, it\u2019s legal to have a tegu as a pet, though animal experts strongly advise keeping them inside, as the cold-blooded animals can\u2019t survive harsh winters.<\/p>\n
Luckily for this tegu, the resident knew just what to do.<\/p>\n
![\"person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769818152_865_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
New England Wildlife Center<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully, [it] takes more than a couple feet of snow and a rogue reptile to rattle this resident,\u201d New England Wildlife Center <\/a>wrote in a Facebook post<\/a>. \u201cHe kindly brought the lizard inside right away and wrapped [her] in a t shirt to help conserve heat.\u201d<\/p>\n The homeowner contacted experts at ET Reptiles<\/a>, who sent a pair of team members to the scene.<\/p>\n Rescuers brought the tegu to veterinarians at New England Wildlife Center. The vets examined the lizard and found that she was extremely weak and underweight.<\/p>\n \u201c[She] had suffered frostbite to [her] tongue and showed signs of significant muscle weakness after prolonged exposure to the cold,\u201d New England Wildlife Center wrote.<\/p>\n Staff members quickly got to work providing lifesaving care. They operated on the tegu to resolve tissue damage and monitored her to ensure her vitals stabilized.<\/p>\n \u201c[She] is now resting comfortably and finally warm, which makes all the difference!\u201d New England Wildlife Center wrote.<\/p>\n Rescuers still aren\u2019t sure where the tegu came from or how she escaped, and they encourage anyone with information to contact New England Wildlife Center or ET Reptiles with updates.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether team members uncover more of the story, they\u2019re dedicated to helping the tegu, whom they\u2019ve named Frankie, fully recover and find a suitable home.<\/p>\n \u201cRecovery will take time, patience and a lot of support, but Frankie is showing us just how strong she can be!\u201d ET Reptiles wrote in a Facebook post.<\/a> \u201cThank you to everyone who has checked in, shared her story and continues to advocate for reptiles who depend entirely on humans to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"tegu](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769818152_148_scale;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
New England Wildlife Center<\/p>\n![\"Little](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769818152_121_flatten;crop;webp=auto;jpeg_quality=60.jpg\")
<\/a>Little Lizard Wanders Into Woman’s House And Refuses To LeaveShe’s found him in every part of her house \ud83d\ude02<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Typically, when you\u2019re shoveling snow, you don\u2019t expect to uncover anything beyond, well, more snow. But recently, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[5822,1285,246,61,60,17170,82,1284,133234,1282,263],"class_list":["post-272824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animal-encounters","tag-daily-dodo","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-maeve-dunigan","tag-science","tag-standard","tag-tegus","tag-the-dodo","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}