The idea of frozen iguanas plummeting from trees in Miami, as promulgated by many news outlets, including the Palm Beach Post, is probably most interesting for its novelty effect:
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said iguanas can become immobilized or sluggish when temperatures hit between 40 and 50 degrees.
This morning, it hit 38 degrees at Palm Beach International Airport and isn’t expected to climb out of the 50s today.
While you may see cold-stunned iguanas on the sidewalk or in your backyard, wildlife officials warn they may even fall out of the trees.
But it’s also a reminder that invasive species such as the iguana and another plague on Florida, the Burmese python, are not always invading their version of the Garden of Eden. A geographical area experiencing a weather extreme can end up killing a substantial portion of the invasive species if it lasts long enough, perhaps enough so that humans can finish them off. Unfortunately, this cold snap won’t last that long.
But if a weather extreme could be artificially induced, it might work. I wonder if environmentalists have considered that – at least those that haven’t yet accepted thenotion that species do change geographical ranges as a natural rhythm of the world. The drive to exterminate species alien to a given geographical area is arguably just another management scheme – which doesn’t condemn the practice, but does remind us that managing Nature is a lot trickier than many of us think it might be.
