After a strong cold front brought wind chills in the teens and low 20s, as well as snow flurries, to parts of the state over the weekend, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is temporarily allowing people to remove live, cold-stunned green iguanas from the wild without a permit. <\/p>\n
The frigid temperatures continue Sunday night into Monday with wind chills as low as 17 degrees to the upper 30s across the Tampa Bay area and a freeze warning in all counties in the region except Pinellas, according to the National Weather Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n People can bring these iguanas, an invasive species, directly to five designated FWC offices in the South and Southwest Regions on Monday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: <\/p>\n FWC South Florida Regional Lab, 2796 Overseas Highway 119, MarathonFWC Office, 10052 NW 53rd, SunriseFWC Tequesta Field Lab, 19100 SE Federal Highway (US 1), TequestaFWC Law Enforcement Office, 2423 Edwards Drive, Fort MyersFWC Southwest Regional Office, 3900 Drane Field Road, Lakeland<\/p>\n Freeze warnings are in place for inland areas of South Florida, and widespread temperatures will range from the mid-20s to the low-40s across the region, the National Weather Service\u2019s Miami office said. <\/p>\n Temperatures this low come with the likelihood of green iguanas, an invasive species that are prevalent across South Florida communities, falling from trees.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it gets this cold like this, it\u2019s funny to those who aren\u2019t from here to see the news people talking about iguanas falling from trees, but \u2026 it can and will happen,\u201d said Joe Wasilewski, a conservation biologist with the King Cobra Conservancy<\/a> and a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature\u2019s Iguana Specialist Group, previously told Patch<\/a>.<\/p>\n He added, \u201cIf it\u2019s under 40 (degrees), it\u2019s gonna happen. If it\u2019s in the 50s, they\u2019re slow. If it\u2019s in the 40s, they\u2019re on the brink of falling. And if it\u2019s in the 30s, they\u2019re down.\u201d<\/p>\n Green iguanas, which are cold-blooded, were introduced to Florida decades ago from Central and South America.<\/p>\n Those are areas \u201cthat very rarely dip below 45 or 40 degrees,\u201d Dermot Bowden with the South Florida Herpetological Society, previously told Patch. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t happen, so they\u2019re not that cold tolerant. So, the few times the temperatures get that low here, they get what we call cold stunned.\u201d<\/p>\n Usually, that \u201cmagic number\u201d is 45 degrees, he said. Any temperature below that, and the iguanas become inactive, meaning they\u2019re more likely to fall from trees and other high places in which they might be sleeping or hiding.<\/p>\n People often mistakenly think the lizards found lying on the ground during a cold snap are dead, but they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n If anyone comes across a cold-stunned iguana, \u201cthe best thing to do is just leave them the way they are,\u201d Bowden said. \u201cThey will recover.\u201d<\/p>\n As temperatures rise, usually when they hit around 50 degrees, the lizards start moving again. It\u2019s only when the extreme cold lasts for several days that the iguanas can\u2019t recover, he said.<\/p>\n