For Renee Aland, it was another regular morning … until she glanced out her car window and saw what appeared to be an alligator-sized lizard.
What happened?
Aland's eyes weren't deceiving her. She called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to report the sighting; after she shared a video of the lizard, they agreed it was likely an Asian water monitor, according to the Miami Herald.
In the video, Aland can be heard telling her daughter to remain in the car. "He's huge. ... He's just, like, strutting across the road," she says, astonished.
This isn't the first example of a monitor lizard in Florida; they came to the state many years ago via the exotic pet trade, the Herald explained. After several of them escaped captivity, they were able to take full advantage of Florida's many canals for shelter and expand their population.
"Why ... would someone have that for a pet?" one person commented on the video, bewildered.
Why are invasive species so harmful?
While a meandering lizard may seem relatively harmless, an invasive species like this can do extraordinary damage to an ecosystem. From directly consuming native birds and small animals to disrupting food chains and hogging resources, invasive species do a great deal of both direct and indirect harm.
"I wonder how many outdoor cats and lost pets have been dinner to these voracious eaters," said Aland, per the Herald.
Monitors can reach a whopping 8 feet in length, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said, describing them as "a tropical, semiaquatic" predator that will eat anything "it can overpower."
Other states have dealt with similarly troubling infestations. New York has had to eradicate the giant African land snail multiple times in the past several years; it not only consumes plants, but it also spreads disease. Michigan has been facing an invasion of the nightmarish lamprey fish, which drains the blood of other fish. And Japanese beetles continue to menace the Midwest's shrubbery.
What's being done about this?
Like Aland did, residents who see an invasive species are encouraged to call their local invasive species hotline.
And while the Asian water monitor is allowed as a pet in Florida, its cousin, the Nile monitor, is illegal to own, so concerned advocates have reason to hope that the Asian monitor might soon follow suit.
With different types of invasive species, local and statewide governments have taken different approaches. In states with invasive catfish, for example, eating them has become a widely practiced strategy. In New York, every resident knows to immediately kill the spotted lanternfly. Even one fewer invasive individual can whittle away at the problem and save the lives of native species.
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