Who’s afraid of the big, bad tegu lizard?
South American black-and-white tegu lizards–adults can grow to five feet long–have “invaded” Florida and other southern states, and their population is, supposedly, burgeoning.
Ooh! Time to rev up the hysteria!
Tegus do like to eat eggs. They are allegedly eating alligator eggs. But as far as being “a threat” to humans–oh, come now.
They wound up in Florida in the first place because people were acquiring them as pets and then releasing them into the wild because they got too big. Seems a bit hard on the lizard, doesn’t it? Supposedly they have adapted to their new habitat. I say three cheers for the lizards.
They’d better not get too fond of raiding alligator nests. The gators will soon get hip to what they’re doing.
Interesting, but certainly not worthy of panic.