Not for long Jeff - they're expanding at a very rapid pace! ; They supposedly started in Florida at Boca Raton around the mid-1950s...no known cause, but could have been either stowaways from a South or Central American boat, or released pets. ; Either way, they absolutely loved the climate and terrain here, and apparently it was a romantic setting too, because they breed like...well, iguanas! ; By 1990, they had punched into the Everglades, down the intercoastal to Miami, and north a few cities. ; A second group popped up on the west coast of Florida - noone knows if they traveled across the glades or were transported there - but they began filling in all around Craig's section in the southwest of Florida. ; Now, they are well entrenched throughout Florida south of Lake Okeechobee...and pretty much inevitable that they have to go north to expand, since they've filled in the south. ; so they're working their way north...They've been spotted as far as the southern Orlando corridor, though in very small numbers so far. ; Apparently, they won't likely go much farther north than that - the climate isn't consistently warm and tropical enough. ; They really don't like cold, and the Orlando area and north gets a little chilly for them on winter nights.
Even more fun news - nile monitors have been spotted in the wild near the fringes of the southern Everglades. ; While iguanas are basically harmless, just eating flowers...Nile monitors get bigger and are meaner - nasty bites and a violent tailwhip, and up to 7 feet long. ; That, and the 20+ foot long burmese pythons are starting to make the fauna down here quite interesting!