Getty Image / Andrew Redington
The great state of Florida is home to numerous invasive species, a list that includes the cane toad, Burmese python, lionfish, and others but the green iguana is so prevalent in South Florida that often times my fellow native Floridians don’t even realize it is an invasive species. ESPN’s Jeff Darlington just got up close and personal with one in Ft. Lauderdale.
Iguanas can be found all throughout South Florida and have been spotted in nearly every county in the state since they were first introduced to Florida in Hialeah, Key Biscane, Coral Gables, and Miami-Date back in the 1960s, according to the state’s report on the green iguana.
Jeff Darlington living in Ft. Lauderdale probably sees iguanas all the time but at no point until now did he ever expect to have a ‘Crocodile Hunter meets Florida Man’ moment in his own house. Darlington shared a photo of an iguana he found that had caused some confusion in his home:
Here’s a first for yours truly, ESPN’s resident Florida Man. Our toilets haven’t been effectively flushing last few days. No idea why. Until I just walked into our bathroom to find this… 😳😂
It tried to go BACK down the toilet pipe… had to grab it by the tail and pull it out. pic.twitter.com/XhILeYf0SA
— Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) August 11, 2024
Darlington shared on X that they’d had trouble flushing that toilet for days. It wasn’t until he found the iguana poking its head out of the toilet that he realized there was a green iguana crawling up the pipe and jamming it up.
Iguana hunting is a big business in South Florida. Golf courses, neighborhoods, etc. all hire iguana hunters to come remove the invasive species and Florida’s anti-cruelty laws do not protect iguanas so Floridians are pretty much free to remove them however they see fit. Fortunately for the iguana, Jeff Darlington only grabbed it by the tail and pulled it out to remove it from the toilet and his home.
Interestingly, I live in SW Florida and was born/raised here and haven’t seen a wild iguana in this county in decades. These invasive lizards that are native to the tropics seem to prefer South Florida a LOT more than SW Florida or elsewhere.