inhuman morning in South Florida ? mayhap do n’t stand under any trees .
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA)took to Twitteron Monday to warn its followers about something foreign : iguana go down from trees in Florida .
It may sound like asign of the Book of Revelation , but the phenomenon is really a result of the more and more frigid , and more common , cold snaps South Florida is have . Iguanas are cold - full-blood and flow out in trees , bushes , and on rocks to hook up sunlight that warms their rake enough to officiate . But with temperatures in South Florida dipping to their cold register temperaturessince 2010 , reptilian like iguanas are literally feeling the freeze .
Photo: passion4nature / Getty
In temperature in the XL Fahrenheit or below , iguanascan get so cold they become immobile andcan no longer clutch leg , causing them to fall down from their perches . That ’s what befall on Sunday forenoon , when temperature across South Florida dive into the 30s and even XX , according to the National Weather Service .
While some fallen iguanas are indeed dead , many arein a stale - have mystifying sleepand can dead come back to life upon warming up .
citizenry have been eager to help immobilized Iguana iguana , postingcomical picturesof seemingly lifeless iguanas dawningcold weather essentialslikeblanketsand beanies . But expert say to stay exonerated from immobilized iguanas because they can become defensive and dangerous once they wake .
" If you come across a frozen common iguana , leave it alone because they could harm you , " FEMA wrote in its tweet .
This is n’t the first time iguana fall from trees in Florida and cold - affected reptilian have made headline . In 2010 , a bestial insensate snapkilledmany South Florida iguanas . And although this may sound like a tragedy , common iguana are n’t really native to The Sunshine State .
While iguanas are prevalent in South Florida , they are in reality aninvasive species . infix to Florida during the sixties and ' 70s from Central America , some eastern Caribbean Islands , and tropic regions of South America via cargo ship and human releases , iguanashave since harmedFlorida ’s aboriginal plant and animals and damaged natural and Isle of Man - made structure likewise with their elaborate burrows and infective , bacterium - ridden BM .
But cold spells are unlikely to devastate Florida iguana populations . A 2020 written report foundsome lizards around Miami have evolved to hold up temperature in the reach of 1.8–7.2 stage Fahrenheit colder than they could in 2016 .
