In the latestonly - in - Florida news , a nearly 2 - time - farsighted ( 6 - foot)Asian water monitor lizardhas turn tail from captivity and made itself comfortable in the backyard of a Broward County home , sun itself on the deck and staring menacingly through the sliding glass threshold at the family who exist there .
It is now day six of the reptilian ’s occupation , and thanks to its telling power to skirt trappers , it ’s stay could be indefinite .
“ Since it ’s been in our backyard my wife is scared to go in the pocket billiards , ” resident / victim Zachary Lieberman toldThe Daily Beast . “ This affair can come out of the bushes and eat our small children as intellectual nourishment . We just want it out of our environment so we can go back to our lives . ”
Native to southerly and southeastern Asia , water monitor are one of the largest lizard mintage in the world . As the name implies , they are semi - aquatic animals that dumbfound closely to bodies of water . And while they are not considered deadly the lizards ’ mouths host a blend of pathogenic bacteria that would spell very speculative news if introduce into a human body through a pungency . Moreover , their tooth are evolved for gnash through physique to take down prey , so the act itself isincredibly awful .
However , the brute do not assail the great unwashed , and typically only bite a individual if threatened . individual and state - employed wildlife removal experts have been attempting to catch the proctor since it get in at the Lieberman house on Sunday , but it has remain one stride beforehand each time .
“ Yesterday , we brought out hunting cad and we were able to tail his post to a muddle in the forest behind my house , but he was not there , ” Lieberman said . “ We finally pay back eyes on him near the water , but he accept off running and bee - line to the lake and swim away . ”
He , or she , has since reappeared near the home . According to The Daily Beast , the lounge lizard ’s origin have been trace to a 14 - year - one-time boy who exist near the Lieberman . The teen used to have three monitors in his backyard enclosure ; only one is in there now .
Exotic fauna , effectual and otherwise , are quite popular in Florida . One reasonableness for this course lie in the fact that the Miami International Airport serves as one of the major entry point for foreign animal beingimported or trafficked into the US .
In 2013 alone , Fish and Wildlife officials assigned to the aerodrome tallied11,000 international shipmentsof springy fauna ( and that ’s only the declared case ) . Another reason could be that remaining pet gibe the Floridian character , and the state ’s clime make it easy to keep the colorful , curious , and sometimes serious creatures native to other tropical regions .
The problem arises when people ’s exotics pet escape – or when their owners decide they do n’t want to care for them anddump them alfresco – and introduce into the ecosystem . Though it may vocalise indurate , the safe outcome of such events is for the animate being to die . Because if it come too well and run into up with other escapees , they could form breeding populations that will almost sure negatively bear upon the livelihoods of native species .
At leastfive specie of exotic animalshave established themselves as incursive species in Florida , the most worrying of which is the Burmese python . Since the 1980s , the descendent of runaway and discarded best-loved snake have been colonize the befittingly balmy Everglades in the southern tip of the state . Despite continuous removal efforts , it is estimatedthat tens of thousands of them live in the immense stretchability of mangroves and swamp .
