Nile monitors in Florida - erradication project

[markb]

Hi all,
I guess all of you have heard by now of the erradication/study project of V. niloticus in Florida/Cape Coral region? Well, is it for "scientific study" or for $50,000 grant they got??

There are alot of feral animals in Florida and that began decades ago when the pet trade took hold there with "The shack" back in the 60's and before....so whats the big deal now? Why the nile monitor? What about the other feral animals/predators? What about all the loose snakes out there? All the birds? Why pick on the varanids? Because Ms. Smith saw one in her garage and she sh$t her nighty?? Or because they eat goldfish out of ponds and are a public nuisance? Give me a break - they clean up the detritus, DOR kills, and such....as a varanophile of course I am biased, and say leave them alone....Florida ecosystem/native fauna is alreadfy ruined, so let the feral animals establish and go from there....

I have a ton of information that could be useful to these biologists, but will I share it? For a fee...$50,000 :).

Cheers,
markb

[burmer]

Florida ecosystem/native fauna is alreadfy ruined, so let the feral animals establish and go from there....

I agree 100%. There are so many animals here that are not native to Florida. Pythons and boas have been spotted all over south Florida. There is an iguana population here as well. They should be left on their own. Besides I doubt they stayed in that small areas. They have most likely migrated to other parts of the state.

[LORI34205]

me being a resident in florida agree that they should be left alone!sure they can be a nuisance to some but some people enjoy having a 5 foot monster taking a dip in there pool, hehe down the street from my house there are a couple who lives near a pet store and all of there iguanas i guess escaped and now there house and neighborhood is owned by iguanas, they really dont care.what about racoons and ducks and snakes and such.snakes will eat your fish,racoons will raid your trsh and so will ducks.I agree that whatever there is out there mainly speaking about the niles should be left alone

[LORI34205]

BUrmer you live in fl??

[burmer]

Yeah I live about a half hour outside of Orlando.

[LORI34205]

cool i live in bradenton
near sarasota

[burmer]

They just ran a story in todays Orlando Sentinel about the niles. They talked about the guy that is supposed to get rid of them. The guy being paid to do the job has said he believes they will make their way up to central Florida as well. I look forward to the day I can go in my back yard and find a nile basking by the pond. The article also covered the fact that since they are exotics there is no law against catching and keeping one.

[ectotherm]

Waste of time. Waste of money. Bring in a few enthusiastic herp societies to wrangle as many as possible over the course of a few months, and give the herpers 500 bucks for a cookout, a couple of kegs, and all the frozen mice you can carry.

[burmer]

Sounds like a plan ectotherm. I'm up for it.

[Mr.Lizard]

Good point Mark. Niles are scavengers as well as predators but their habits are less likely to be a problem than that of raccoons or armadillos(not native). But there's no plan to wipe them out.
Many of our geckos and our cuban anoles are non-native as well.
People think "reptile" especially large reptile and freak out.
I am also partial to monitors so yes,I am a bit biased,but I honestly don't see the harm in such an animal roaming around....we have plenty of venomous creatures here which pose a far greater threat to the lives of our pets and ourselves,not to mention our dog and child-eating gators.