Contractors hired to catch invasive iguanas in Pingtung County last year caught nearly 20,000 of the reptiles — the most caught in any county or municipality nationwide, the Pingtung County Department of Agriculture said on Sunday.
The contractors caught 19,733 iguanas in Pingtung — 2.3 times the 8,420 iguanas caught there in 2020, the department said, adding that 10,000 were caught in November and last month alone.
“One of the reasons for the large increase is that we hired more contractors. So, naturally, with more people trapping them, the number of iguanas caught will go up,” the department said.
Photo courtesy of the Pingtung County Government
Green iguanas typically grow to about 1.5m in length, and some people who raise them as pets discard them in the wild once they become too large and unsightly, it said.
“Unfortunately, in the wild in Taiwan the iguana has no natural predators, so it breeds quickly and destroys the balance of the local ecosystem,” the department said.
There are a large number of iguanas in the wild in Pingtung, and the county budgeted NT$1 million (US$36,143) per year in 2019 and 2020 to remove the invasive species, it said, adding that it secured NT$2 million from the central government last year for the task.
Iguanas are caught mostly near the county’s main rivers and streams, such as Wannian River (萬年溪) and Donggang River (東港), the department said, adding that two of the contractors focus their efforts on Pingtung City and surrounding towns and villages, such as Jhutian Township (竹田), Chaojhou Township (潮州) and Wandan Township (萬丹).
“Starting in November last year, the contractors began trapping more at night, which resulted in a much larger number of iguanas being caught,” it said.
The public is also encouraged to trap iguanas, and those who catch them would be eligible for a reward, department director Cheng Yung-yu (鄭永裕) said.
“Captured iguanas can be taken to the fire department in Pingtung City or Chaojhou Township to be exchanged for goods,” the department said. “However, we advise caution when trapping the lizards.”
Those who find iguanas in the wild can also call 1999 to report the location to officials, it said.
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