Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung.
Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said.
Photo courtesy of Hsieh Chi-liang
Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in Chiayi, 6,500 in Kaohsiung, 5,000 in Changhua and about 100 in several other administrative regions.
This year, thanks to NT$20 million (US$608,606) in funding allocated by the government, the ministry has set a goal of culling 120,000, he said.
Based on its experience in eradicating the African sacred ibis, the ministry is relying mainly on professional hunting teams to cull the iguanas, which have established their presence in nine administrative regions.
About 300 people were recruited for the teams at hiring events held late last year in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, while additional events would be held in Chiayi and Pingtung counties in the coming weeks, he said.
Shortly after the Lunar New Year, the ministry is also planning to release a new agricultural damage reporting app, which would include a section where farmers can post information on iguana sightings, he added.
In addition to threatening native species, iguanas are considered to be an agricultural pest and have caused widespread damage to red bean, gourd and other vegetable crops in central and southern Taiwan.
As an incentive, the ministry is offering professional hunters a bounty of NT$500 for every iguana of at least 30cm (snout to vent) they kill and NT$200 for every one shorter than 30cm.
For the general public, the bounties for iguanas are half that amount — NT$250 and NT$100, he said.
Chiu said his confidence in the iguana eradication effort drew in part from Taiwan’s success in removing African ibises, which were largely brought under control over a five-year period.
Compared with 2019, when 18,000 of the wading birds were culled, it is now estimated that only about 50 of them remain in Taiwan, he said.
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