The green-scaled iguanas have made their rounds around Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus while making it their home; however, they have become a serious threat to Florida natives and species special to FAU, like the gopher tortoise and burrowing owls.
Iguanas were introduced to Florida’s ecology in the 1960s as a result of the exotic pet trade of the time, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. Now, they are causing widespread ecological damage, and the effects are escalating with a population of around 100,000 in Florida alone, according to analyses from IggyTrap, an iguana trapping company.
Samantha Wisely is an associate professor of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation at the University of Florida. She explains the problems of allowing non-native species to grow rampant in Florida’s diverse natural ecology…