An invasive 5-foot-long lizard has been spotted in the Sunshine State, but it’s honestly just another normal Florida day.
On May 20, the animal, presumed to be an Asian water monitor, was seen trotting across a busy road in Florida, leaving passersby stunned, according to a report by Fox News.
“He’s huge,” said Renee Aland in a video she shared on social media of the lizard. “He’s just strutting across the road. He’s heading to the other side of the road.”
At one point during the clip, Aland’s daughter, Zoey Marzonie, can be heard asking to get closer to the animal; however, her mother quickly says, “Nope, just stay in the car.”
Instead, Aland phoned the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and waited until they arrived to capture the entire incident on camera. She admits that, at first, due to its size, she thought the lizard was an alligator.
“When we got closer, I looked, and I saw his tongue, [a] lizard tongue coming out, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap, that’s not a gator!’”
Her daughter likened the lizard to something she’d seen on the popular Disney Channel show Jessie.
“It was like this big lizard, and I’ve seen something like it before,” Marzonie recalled. “Have you heard of the show Jessie for Disney Channel? It was like that big lizard in Jessie. It was just strolling. It was huge, at least four or five feet. It was pretty crazy. I wanted to get out and get closer, I was like, what is that? I wanted to see it, but she said, ‘No, stay in the car.'”
Just a week before this incident, another invasive species, Peter’s rock agama, was seen making its way up the coast of Florida. The red-headed reptile is just yet another animal that natural resources extension agent with the University of Florida, Ken Gioeli, says is a part of “the invasion front” in the southern state.
“They’re causing some impact on the environment, but we still don’t yet have a total handle on what it is they’re doing,” said Gioeli.
It looks like the lizards want to enjoy the Sunshine State as much as its current residents!
