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Thread: invasive tegus

  1. #1

    Question invasive tegus

    Hey everybody, I'm brand new to this site!
    I think i bring something different to the forum because i live in south Miami, and do alot of work in homestead. Im not sure if your aware of this but south florida has invasive argentine tegus breeding in suburban and farmland areas.

    luckily they dont fit into the everglades very well, but they are becoming a nuisance.

    I volunteer at the Everglades Outpost, an exotic animal rescue center, and mostly work with the reptiles. Over the last 2 years the amount of calls we get about tegus in peoples backyard has skyrocketed.
    I love my captive bred and born tegu, as well as the ones made under the wild Florida sun.

    I'm lucky enough to get to catch wild tegus and see them act as they would in the wild. Let me tell you what, you truly understand how smart tegus are when they survived using their wits, unlike our simple minded pets.

    what do you guys think about our wild tegus? Good or Bad? maybe you guys would come down to watch them or try to catch them. how do you think this will affect the legality of tegus?, remember they could most likely live in agricultural/southern states besides South Florida (in my personal opinion)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Central FL
    Posts
    4,349

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    Personally, I think they are bad. As much as I love tegus, they will be an agricultural pest and a negative association to our hobby.
    Laura R (FL)
    1.0.0 Colombian Tegu
    1.4.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
    1.2.0 Red Tegu
    1.2.0 B/WxRed Tegu
    1.0.0 Green Ameiva (yet another teiid)
    7 other lizards
    1 little gator
    3 FL box turtle
    1 Sulcata tortoise
    16 snakes
    5 fuzzy pets
    4 little frogs
    a bunch of creepy bugs
    and a partridge in a pear tree

  3. #3

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    I completely agree! do they have them in central Florida? I personally think they can live in the wild that far north if not further.

    they are also a huge danger to small children.
    I dont blow things out of proportion, and I personally know whats going on in the glades. Stating that I can tell you guys to not believe anything on the tv, news paper, and even the websites put up by the state to inform people. Even those websites have hugely incorrect information.

    Getting back to the small children, I have personally seen a wild bull tegu approach a 3 year old in full 2 legged pursuit. Wild tegus have more WAY balls than an alligator of similar size.
    Agriculturally in south florida, I do feel that they might, possibly be beneficial to agriculture.
    It all depends on the amount of food the tegus eat, compared to the mice and rats they get rid of. If less mice and more tegus mean less loss of produce due to pests than it will be good. of course it could be synergistic, and the pest problem will be much worse.

    similarly they control Muscovy ducks by eating the eggs and chicks. Perhaps this means less disease and contamination due to a lower number of adult muscovy ducks, maybe the tegus waste is lesser in quantity but higher in contamination, or they will both contribute to create a higher levels of contamination.

    I obviously love tegus, Ive had my baby for 4 years now, but if we dont want the legality of them to go down the drain, I say they start a hunting incentive and get the community to enjoy eating them, so the general population will get rid of them for their own benefit ( which is the only way things get done)

    i guess well have to wait and find out.... just not from the media( ill say it like it is)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Central FL
    Posts
    4,349

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    Yes, we have a population in Central Fl that was established before S FL. We have strawberry farms here, gopher torts, and other things that could be easily disrupted by tegus. If the rodent population decreases, then the bird of prey and snake population decreases as well.
    Laura R (FL)
    1.0.0 Colombian Tegu
    1.4.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
    1.2.0 Red Tegu
    1.2.0 B/WxRed Tegu
    1.0.0 Green Ameiva (yet another teiid)
    7 other lizards
    1 little gator
    3 FL box turtle
    1 Sulcata tortoise
    16 snakes
    5 fuzzy pets
    4 little frogs
    a bunch of creepy bugs
    and a partridge in a pear tree

  5. #5

    Default

    good point

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    San Antonio,TX
    Posts
    9,505

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    Hi gladestegu. Welcome to our Tegu forum family. Thank you for your information. I would love to help catch them and maybe if I see a very good looking one keep it for myself. But I never could kill them or eat them :( . I know they do that in Argentina. It would be awesome if you could make some videos of the wild ones so we can learn from it.
    Rich is not how much you have, or where you are going, or what you are.Rich is who you have beside you.

    Our videos :

    http://www.youtube.com/user/txrepgirl

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