CAPE CORAL, Fla. — It’s a massive lizard that might be bigger than your pet! Wildlife experts say thousands are living in Cape Coral.
A Nile monitor lizard was creeping along SE 14th Terrace in northeast Cape Coral.
Jill Alvord, who snapped a picture of the creature, is warning neighbors with small animals. Especially after it came so close to her three dogs, just a few feet away from her Lanai door.
“He had to have been 4 feet at least, “ said Alvord. “The lizard was not intimidated by my dogs barking, snarling, growling…”
She said the Nile monitor scurried off, jumped in the canal and swam to the other side. Other neighbors told NBC2 they’ve seen even larger Nile monitors in their canal than the one Alvord saw last week.
“He’s fast too and I didn’t realize how fast they were,” said Alvord.
Andrew Durso, an assistant professor in wildlife biology at Florida Gulf Coast University, believes neighbors shouldn’t be too worried.
“(Nile monitors) They are probably not going to eat your pet,” he said. “They can’t hurt you at all… I mean, they could if you tried to pick them up, they can bite, they can scratch, they can do anything that any animal with teeth can do.”
Durso said Nile monitors only get aggressive if they’re forced to act defensively. Wildlife experts say they eat small mammals, other reptiles, birds and eggs. Still, Alvord and others in her neighborhood who’ve encountered them aren’t taking chances.
“We were thinking about getting an invisible fence. Not now!” Alvord said. “If he could come up here and he wasn’t afraid of my three dogs, we definitely have to put some sort of privacy fence.. he’s not going to hurt my animals.”
Like other invasive species in Florida, the Nile monitors were originally pets that were released or ended up escaping from captivity. From head to tail, they can grow up to almost 7 feet. If you see one, you’re supposed to report it to FWC. There are also companies that will come remove the reptile for you.
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