It’s so cold in Florida that it could rain iguanas from the sky
Florida’s iguanas are an introduced species, and they are not accustomed to the cold temperatures the state is currently experiencing.
A cold-stunned iguana was observed in Florida in late 2022.
Cristobal Herrera/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Florida’s iguanas are in for a big surprise: Temperatures have dropped across the southeastern U.S., with overnight lows in some parts of the state forecast to drop into the mid-30s Fahrenheit (single digits Celsius) or even 20s Fahrenheit (negative single digits C).
green iguana (iguana iguana) are not native to the Americas, but were introduced to Florida in the 1960s, where they mostly thrive, except when temperatures drop below 50 °F (10 °C). These cold conditions can cause cold shock in lizards. And because iguanas sleep in trees, freezing temperatures can sometimes cause the animals to fall from the sky in an infamous incident in Florida.
These animals – which can exceed five feet in length – are native to the rainforests of Central and South America, where temperatures are far more consistent than in Florida. “These tropical lizards were experiencing conditions that they had never experienced before in their entire evolutionary history, for millions of years,” says James Stroud, an evolutionary biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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But in Florida, cold conditions occur every few years – although less frequently due to rising temperatures caused by climate change. Stroud says the experience of the iguanas forced to brave the cold in the state could teach scientists more about how animals respond to new climates.
“We don’t have a very good handle on what happens when species or entire populations are faced with a completely new climate that they’ve never experienced before,” says Stroud. Florida’s non-native tropical lizards offer a rare real-world example. That’s why Stroud and his colleagues studied such organisms during the severe cold of 2020. In that researchThey found that lizards that had experienced cold became more tolerant of cold temperatures.
“Because they are extreme events, they can be incredibly powerful for species response at the population level,” says Stroud. Now he is working to understand whether such tolerance might be an example of evolution – or simple adaptation.
And if you live in Florida, Stroud says you don’t have to worry about any cold-shocked iguanas you see. He says as long as the animals don’t fall from such a height that they could be harmed, the lizards will be fine.
“Once the sun comes out and the air temperature warms up, they’re more likely to actually wake up and be active again,” says Stroud. “You don’t need to put a blanket over them.”
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