#PET ARMADILLO LIZARD FREE#
The changes require tegu owners to have their animals microchipped with ownership information and registered through a free permitting process.Īlso, beginning this past April, no new pet tegus can be acquired in Florida, but current pets can live with their owners until they die. While there is no tegu management plan in Florida, FWC approved licensing changes in February that target 16 non-native reptiles, including tegus. They also have sharp teeth and claws and can grow to a length of 4.5 feet. They can be housetrained and “like to be hugged,” Mazzotti said. Tegus raised from hatchlings are considered household pets by some reptile fans. TEGUS HAVE SHARP TEETH AND CAN GROW TO 4.5 FEET LONG
“Research and risk assessments conducted show that tegus have a high potential to become the next Burmese python in Florida,” said Larry Williams, Florida ecological services state supervisor for USGS. Ted Cruz's daughter 'disagrees with most of his views,' describes life in public eye.poised for a firestorm of omicron cases, with few safeguards in place Texas congressman calls Marjorie Taylor Greene an 'idiot' during social media spat.Rockets' Alperen Sengun explains why he doesn't get more playing time.Texas colleges go remote, encourage jabs to begin spring semester.Rockets suspend both Kevin Porter Jr., and Christian Wood.Rockets' Kevin Porter leaves arena after reportedly having to be restrained from going after coaches.Tegus have also been reported in four Georgia counties. Both counties have known breeding populations. That’s compared to 6,008 reports in Miami-Dade County and 245 in Charlotte County. The most recent report was made in May when a city of West Palm Beach employee found a tegu in the parking lot of Grassy Waters Preserve. The invasive species tracking website EDDMaps lists 43 tegu sightings in Palm Beach County back to 2009. “Palm Beach County surprised the hell out of us,” he said. Mazzotti said his research team was stunned in 2019 when it asked for community help identifying Nile monitor lizards in Palm Beach County and half of the photos that were sent in were of tegus.
“Because they can live in many more places and eat everything, there is not going to be a whole lot to stop them.” “This is the first critter I’ve ever worked with that eats everything, truly everything,” Mazzotti said. Threatened gopher tortoise hatchlings were found in the gut of five tegus from Central Florida. One of his key concerns is the tegu’s appetite for eggs, whether it be sea turtle, crocodile, alligator, gopher tortoise or bird.Īn analysis of the stomach content of 124 tegus included frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, turtles and small mammals. Released and escaped pets as well as unscrupulous dealers are responsible for seeding the tegu spread, Mazzotti said. UF circulated an updated fact sheet on the tegu invasion in Florida this month, raising another red flag that “additional resources are critical to address the tegu problem on a larger scale.” “If you wait until you see the impact an animal is having, it’s too late.” “It doesn’t seem like we’ve learned a lesson from our experience with pythons,” said University of Florida wildlife professor Frank Mazzotti, who leads the Croc Docs research team.
In 2019, 1,425 tegus were removed from the wild - more than double the number trapped in 2015.