Metre-long tegu lizards may be even more damaging to the ecology of the Everglades than giant pythons.
MIAMI—The Argentine tegu lizard doesn’t grow nearly as big as a Burmese python but it may be a greater threat to South Florida’s native animals.
At a maximum size of 1.2 metres, a tegu can’t gobble down a full-grown deer or alligator with its rapier-sharp teeth. But the invasive, black and white reptiles have the potential to cause even more ecological damage than the giant snakes that have drawn international media attention in recent years.
And now, scientists say, it’s too late to eradicate them.
“When we first found out about them in 2008, we thought we had a chance to nip this population in the bud,” said the National Park Service’s Tony Pernas, who co-chairs the Everglades Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area group. “Now we’ve changed from eradication mode to containment mode.”
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