The United States National Weather Service Miami-South Florida warned the public on Sunday to take cover as frozen iguanas could fall out of trees amid unusually cold temperatures around the region.

Jan 21 – This isn't something we usually forecast, but don't be surprised if you see Iguanas falling from the trees tonight as lows drop into the 30s and 40s. Brrrr! #flwx #miami pic.twitter.com/rsbzNMgO01

— NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) January 21, 2020

“Iguanas are cold-blooded. They slow down or become immobile when temps drop into the 40s (4 deg C to 9 deg C). They may fall from trees, but they are not dead,” the agency twitted.

According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in South Florida recorded a low of 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3.8 degrees Celsius) on Sunday morning, with high temperatures forecast to remain in the upper 50s to low 60s on Sunday.

A catastrophic winter storm hit the nation’s northeast on Saturday, prompting seven states to declare emergencies and forcing the cancellation of more than 1,400 flights.

The iguana phenomena was revealed to news station WPBF by zoologist Stacey Cohen, a reptile expert at the Palm Beach Zoo in Florida.

“Their bodies basically start to shut down where they lose their functions and so they are up in the trees on the branches sleeping and then because it gets so cold, they lose that ability to hang on and then they do fall out of trees a lot,” Ms Cohen said.

Although the majority of the reptiles are expected to survive this period of immobilization, Ms Cohen warned that frigid conditions pose a threat to their existence, citing a cold spell in 2010 that wiped out a big portion of the population.

“Cold is a very, very life-threatening thing for them because they are from parts of Central and South America close to the equator where it always stays very warm,” she said.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, green iguanas are not native to the state. They are classified as invasive species since they were accidentally introduced as stowaways in cargo ships.

They can grow to be over five feet (1.5m) long and weigh up to 17 pounds (7.5kg).

These iguanas aren’t the only ones that have been affected by the cold this winter. After a huge snowstorm rocked the country last week, hundreds of thousands of farmed fish died from thermal shock in a lagoon in northwestern Greece.

Source: Reuters

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