Non-Indigenous,

I have a great love for the everglades and the animals that live here. I love taking tourists across the sawgrass prairie on a windy airboat ride and stopping in the middle of nowhere. I tell the people on my boat about the sawgrass and the birds and animals we’ve seen on our trip. The animals have no fear of the airboat and are often, it seems, as curious about us as we are about them. As I end my speech I ask if anyone has any questions. People from all over the world have asked me about the animals that are known to live in the river of grass but didn’t come from here (the non-indigenous species) such as Iguanas, Pythons and Boa Constrictors.

I can usually show folks one of the non-indigenous reptiles in just a few moments. They’ll look around at the wide-open sawgrass prairie, dotted with small "tree-islands" or hard-wood hammocks and I’ll steer the airboat across the wet grass towards one of them. As we approach the hard-wood hammock I’ll head around to the north side and the opening to the trail through it.

Proceeding slowly through the hammock, everyone gets a good, close look at everything. The vegetation in these hammocks is thick like a jungle and reptiles like that. I always tell everyone to look for alligators at the waters edge because it is always exciting to see one of these magnificent animals in their natural environment. Sometimes the tourists will catch me looking at the top of the trees and someone will say, "HEY! You told us to look in the water for alligators and you are looking way up in the trees." I tell tourists to look down because I know that they are fast learners and it will be easy for them to spot alligators. While the tourists are looking down, I have plenty of time to look up in the trees for the iguanas. Once I spot an iguana in the trees, I tell everyone where it is. Iguanas blend in with the scenery so well that it takes a few moments to spot them. Sometimes, the iguanas sit on the tree branches that hang over the channel and are so close to me, up high in the driver’s seat, I could touch them if I wanted to. I explain to them that there are lots of iguanas in the trees. The iguanas we see most are the common green iguanas. The adult male iguana that lives on the airboat trail through the hammock is about four feet long, green colored with florescent yellow and orange stripes and blotches. There are three females that live in the area as well, but they are much harder to see. The females are more of a green color, with both light and dark green stripes.

It is fun to watch the iguanas during the mating season. The male will see a female basking in the sun on a tree branch far away and he will start flagging her. The flag is a flat piece of colored skin that hangs on the neck of the male iguana (and many other types of lizards) that he can stretch out like a flag in the wind. When he sees a female iguana, the male starts doing push ups and lifting his head up high. While his head is up high he flares out his flag so the female can see it. The male iguana will start moving closer to her, stopping along the way to do his push ups and flagging. Hoping all the while that he will be noticed and that she will not run and hide before he gets to her. If she is impressed with him then she will stick around and mate with him. If she is not impressed she runs away and he did all that work for nothing. I’m sure that at least some of the female iguanas didn’t run away because I’ve seen many baby iguanas this year. They are about 6 to 12 inches long and are hard to see because they are very well camouflaged, blending in with the tree branches and leaves.

Non-indigenous creatures have been spotted all over South Florida for many years. In 1989, over a period of several months, some people in a Fort Lauderdale neighborhood started missing some of their pets. One night, a resident, David Spaulding heard noise coming from his back yard. The noise got louder so he went to see what was happening. Mr. Spaulding found a 20-foot Reticulating Python with a raccoon rapped in its coils. A leading, local expert on reptiles, Joe Wasilewski, helped capture the python. Joe has been working with and studying reptiles all his life and now teaches many people about reptiles. It was his professional opinion that if the huge Python wasn’t caught its next victim could have been a small child.

The most recent sighting of a non-indigenous reptile was in Everglades National Park. As tourists walked along a pathway to a lake in the park they could see something in the water "Thrashing" and making some big waves. As they got closer they could see that it was big and it was fighting with something. They got to the waters edge and to their amazement it was a big Python and it was wrapped around an alligator that was about 7 to 9 feet long. Lots of tourists saw the battle, because the two fought for 24 hours. Finally, another alligator got curious and came over to investigate, it apparently bit the Python and the snake released the gator it was fighting with and swam away. Park Rangers warned people to stay away from the python because it could be dangerous and to report it immediately if they saw it so that the rangers could catch it and kill it. Of course I feel bad for the python, however, it doesn’t belong out in the everglades and the alligators do. Like most of the species that don’t belong out in the everglades or running wild in other parts of South Florida, that snake was probably someone’s pet and the inconsiderate fool just let it go in the swamp when they didn’t want it any more.

I can remember when I was 9 years old, my parents took me to The Crandon Park Zoo on the end of Key Biscayne, an island on Biscayne Bay. The Zoo isn’t on Key Biscayne anymore since it was moved inland over 20 years ago and became The Miami Metrozoo (possibly the subject of another story) and even back then, there were many iguanas in the trees and running loose throughout the zoo and all over the island. There are still so many iguanas on Key Biscayne that people run over them or often crash their cars trying not to run over them. It is such a problem that there are warning signs on the road that say, "IGUANA CROSSING".

There are many more kinds of exotic animals in south Florida and I will write more about them soon.

THANKS so much for coming to our web-site and reading my story. I hope to have another story for you next month so make sure you check to see what my story will be.

Teachers and students, if this story can help you in any way for a class project please e-mail me and ask if you can use it and I’m sure I will give you my permission to use it. Just remember to tell me if your class liked it or how you did.

*This story or any part of it can not be used or reproduced with out written permission of the author!