Why are there suddenly so many iguanas in South Florida?
The three species of iguana found in Florida (Common Green Iguana, Mexican Spinytail Iguana, and Black Spinytail Iguana) have been around for decades. However, over the past few years, their populations have exploded. Wildlife scientists who study exotic species use a statistic they call the rule of ten: One in ten exotic animals escape into the wild; one in ten of the escapees survive to establish a breeding population; and one in ten of the established exotics become pests. Since so few (statistically) escape, and fewer actually survive, this slows down the population growth initially. But for those species that do manage to escape and survive and thrive, the gradual swell in population eventually begins to increase exponentially as the number of breeding pairs grows with each generation. So, for years most of us did not even notice the iguanas among us. Now we are practically tripping over them. State biologists estimate their numbers in the hundreds of thousands. These large reptil
