The Changhua County Government on Friday cautioned against hunting green iguanas at risk of unintentionally expanding their territory, after a video went viral of a family shooting 41 of the lizards with a slingshot in a single day.
Wu Hsiao-chen (吳小珍) on Monday posted a video on YouTube of her husband and two sons hunting invasive green iguanas in the Erlin River (二林溪) basin.
Wu’s husband in the video uses a slingshot to shoot the lizards. Once hit, their sons rush to collect them, using a fishing line attached to the slingshot projectile to reel them in.
Screen grab from YouTube
In the video, Wu tells viewers who want to join the effort to act humanely and bury captured iguanas in small groups to avoid affecting the environment.
As of yesterday morning, the video had been viewed more than 100,000 times, drawing hundreds of comments, many of which thanked the family for their environmental stewardship, praised their marksmanship and expressed shock at the pervasiveness of the animals.
Changhua County Department of Agriculture Director-General Chiu Yi-chih (邱奕志) confirmed that the family captured 41 iguanas in a day, but warned that the video does not accurately represent how difficult it is to hunt them.
The video only shows the successful shots, which could lead people to mistakenly believe that hunting them with a slingshot is easy, he said.
The estimated 400 to 500 green iguanas living in the Erlin River basin have been wreaking havoc on agriculture in the area, Chiu said.
Since enlisting the Wild Bird Society of Changhua to hunt the creatures two years ago, the department has been able to control their population, he said.
However, Chiu said he fears that an influx of novice hunters would scare the iguanas into expanding their territory, making population containment more difficult.
The population of green iguanas has exploded in the years since pet owners released them into the wild, leading local residents to nickname the area “Jurassic Park.”
Green iguanas, also known as American iguanas, are primarily herbivores, and have been blamed for eating crops and crowding out smaller, native lizard species. Their burrows, often constructed near water sources, can erode irrigation canals, affecting farmers’ livelihoods.
The lizards also often enter people’s homes, leading residents to seek help from their local representatives, including former legislator Hung Tsung-yi (洪宗熠).
Hung was ridiculed in 2017 for asking the head of the Forestry Bureau if people could eat the iguanas, but the incident illustrated residents’ detestation of the creatures.
The video has once again drawn public attention to Changhua’s “Jurassic Park,” with people asking if the hunter was able to make money from his efforts.
The man through a friend said that he has captured hundreds of iguanas since beginning to hunt them in April, but has not turned them in for any reward.
“I do not hunt iguanas for money,” he said, adding that he deals with them in a similar fashion to the government.
The county government said that it disposes of green iguanas through thermal euthanasia and burial.
Additional reporting by CNA
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said it would delay the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, citing public health considerations and ongoing discussions on how the policy should be implemented. Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said officials from several ministries were working on the policy and an announcement would be made yesterday. However, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the policy was still under review. Wang said its implementation would be “delayed slightly” due to three main factors. First, the center
END OF SERIES: As the first generation of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire, the CECC would no longer offer them to children younger than four years old The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of a person infected with the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The Taiwanese man in his 20s arrived from Canada on Jan. 22, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. He tested positive after reporting having a runny nose and muscle soreness while in airport quarantine, Lo said. The XBB.1.5 subvariant is the dominant strain in the US, but there is no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness than other Omicron subvariants, he said,
NORMALIZING TIES: The delegation led by the KMT’s Johnny Chiang is to meet with British lawmakers, think tanks and business groups to discuss developments A legislative delegation led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) arrived in the UK yesterday to rally support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Chiang heads the Legislative Yuan’s Taiwan-UK Interparliamentary Amity Association. The delegation also includes KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) and Wu I-ding (吳怡玎). The group is to meet with British lawmakers Alicia Kearns, who chairs the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House Defence Select Committee; and Bob Stewart, who cochairs the
RSS