Images: Exotic Lizards Pop Out of the Ground in Florida

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Tegu In Florida

(Image credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

Tegu Trap

(Image credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

Jake Edwards, an exotic wildlife technician for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), sets a trap for tegus.

Lizards On The Loose

tegu

(Image credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

FWC Investigator Jerry Shores handles a four-foot tegu captured in Panama City, Fla. As of April 30, 2013, FWC officials had recovered 34 live tegus in the area and several dead ones; more are feared to be on the loose.

Reptiles Rise

(Image credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

Wildlife officials think a pet dealer left the lizards in a yard in Panama City, Fla. The tegus emerged this spring after spending the winter in dens that had been dug into the ground.

Alien Invaders

(Image credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)

The lizards, which grow up to 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 meters) in length and can weigh up to 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms), are native to South America and are considered an invasive species in Florida.

Exotic Pet

(Image credit: FWC Photo by Alicia Wellman)

This black and white tegu was kept as a pet and turned in during one of the state's Exotic Pet Amnesty Days, which allows owners to give up their unwanted animal for adoption with no penalty. Officials don't want nonnative animals like tegus let loose in the wild where they could establish breeding populations and compete for resources with Florida's native species.

Megan Gannon
Megan Gannon
Live Science Contributor
Megan has been writing for Live Science and Space.com since 2012. Her interests range from archaeology to space exploration, and she has a bachelor's degree in English and art history from New York University. Megan spent two years as a reporter on the national desk at NewsCore. She has watched dinosaur auctions, witnessed rocket launches, licked ancient pottery sherds in Cyprus and flown in zero gravity. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.