How Old Is an Iguana in Human Years?

As a significant cold front swept through South Florida in late January and early February 2026, dropping temperatures into the mid-30s°F, a phenomenon familiar to long-time Floridians unfolded across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties: iguanas falling from trees by the hundreds.

Residents woke to find the cold-stunned reptiles sprawled across driveways, sidewalks, and lawns — some measuring over four and a half feet from nose to tail. Reports flooded social media. Private removal companies worked around the clock. One professional, Jessica Kilgore of Iguana Solutions, noted that iguanas near the beach were particularly hard-hit: "the air coming off the cold water is even colder for them, and the wind is stronger over there, so it knocks them out the trees."

The FWC issued Executive Order 26-03 allowing public collection without permits on February 1–2. 600 iguanas were dropped off at FWC facilities on Sunday alone, with 350 more by Monday afternoon — including 140 collected by Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation. One family turned the event into an educational outing: father Tim Arsenault and his five-year-old daughter Rory pulled a wagon around their neighbourhood, collecting iguanas and counting them aloud. "It was really fun," he said. The order expired Tuesday, February 3, with the FWC confirming it would no longer accept iguanas and reminding residents that transporting live iguanas remains illegal without a state permit.

Every Florida cold snap comes with the same official warning: do not bring cold-stunned iguanas indoors or into your vehicle. The temptation to "rescue" what appears to be a dying lizard is understandable — but the reality is that iguanas can revive rapidly once exposed to warmth, and a suddenly-conscious 4-foot iguana in your car or living room is a serious problem.

Iguanas recovering from torpor can be aggressive and defensive — biting with sharp teeth, scratching with powerful claws, and whipping with a long tail capable of causing real injury. The FWC advised residents who find stunned iguanas to leave them alone and allow them to warm naturally, or to humanely euthanise them on their property if desired under existing state law. During the emergency window, collection required strict containment: sealed breathable cloth bags inside a locked secondary container labelled "Prohibited Reptiles."

Florida also reminded residents that iguanas are a Prohibited species — possession, transport, and sale require state permits. The cold snap paradoxically made them briefly the most collectible animal in Florida, then immediately made them illegal to transport again 48 hours later.

The iguana-falling-from-trees story makes for entertaining news, but the underlying ecological reality in Florida is serious. Green iguanas are aggressive burrowers, capable of digging tunnels up to 50 feet (15 metres) underground. Those burrows undermine seawalls, collapse sidewalks, damage building foundations, and erode canal banks. The infrastructure cost runs into millions of dollars annually.

Ecologically, the damage is significant. Iguanas push burrowing owls out of their burrows — the owls are a protected species in Florida, and iguana competition for nest sites is a documented threat. During cold snaps, iguanas flee into gopher tortoise burrows — gopher tortoises are a keystone species whose burrows support over 350 other species. The iguanas eat native plants, compete with native wildlife for food, and have essentially no natural predators in Florida capable of controlling their population. Florida has documented over 600 nonnative species statewide — with 139 established and breeding — making it one of the most invaded ecosystems in the world. The iguana is among the most visible and disruptive.

Green iguanas first appeared in Florida in the 1960s — likely through escaped or deliberately released pets. For decades the population remained small, confined to the southernmost tip of the state. Then several factors combined to accelerate their spread dramatically.

The exotic pet trade brought millions of green iguanas into American homes through the 1990s and 2000s. Many owners discovered too late that a cute 6-inch hatchling grows into a 5-foot, 17-pound adult that requires a large dedicated enclosure, specialised lighting, and decades of care. Abandonment and release — illegal but rampant — seeded populations across South Florida. Hurricane Andrew in 1992 is also thought to have released large numbers from importation facilities. Florida's subtropical climate proved essentially indistinguishable from the iguana's native Central American range for most of the year.

Today, the FWC actively encourages removal and offers guidance on humane euthanasia. Homeowners are legally permitted to remove iguanas from their property without a permit. Professional iguana removal is now an established industry in South Florida, with dedicated companies, trapping services, and removal programmes operating year-round. The cold snap events — however dramatic — are not a management solution. The iguana is, in all practical terms, a permanent resident of Florida.