Yes, you read that right!
The National Weather Service in Miami sent a tweet warning residents that iguanas may fall from trees because of the cold air that is affecting the Sunshine State.
Dec 21 - Brrr! Much colder temps expected for Christmas. Low temperatures in the 30s/40s and falling Iguanas are possible. Keep up with forecast changes and stay warm! #flwx pic.twitter.com/BRYfugIE5Q
— NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) December 21, 2020
Iguanas are cold-blooded animals, so Florida is the perfect place for them to live since it rarely gets cold there. You'll also find iguanas on a lot of the Caribbean Islands for this same reason—it's warm and they love it. So when it gets cold, you could imagine that the iguanas are not too happy.
Because of their cold-blooded nature, when temperatures dip into the 40s or the 30s in South Florida, iguanas' bodies actually slow down and they become immobile. When their bodies become immobile, gravity takes over and does the rest ...
Don't worry, the iguanas are not dead! They just go dormant until temperatures warm up.
Several Floridians have seen this happen before, earlier this year, in fact, but it does not take away the fact that this is a very weird phenomenon—especially to those of us who don't live in Florida where this a (seemingly) normal occurrence.
A story from a couple of years ago comes to mind when a gentleman from Central America, where iguanas are well-known and used as a source of protein for some, was visiting the Florida Keys during a cold snap. This gentleman saw all of these what looked like dead iguanas on the sidewalk. So, naturally, he went on to pick up said iguanas and put them in his car to use as a source of protein. No harm there, since it definitely appeared as though these iguanas were not living.
To his surprise, however, once the iguanas were placed in his car, where the temperature was obviously warmer than the outside air temperature, the iguanas started to come back to life! Iguanas are quick creatures and when you have—what I'm assuming were a few dozen iguanas in a confined space, such as a car—they started to quickly climb all over everything in an attempt to get to safety.
Imagine the surprise of the driver when this started to occur. Unfortunately, it led to him crashing his car, but luckily, he was not injured and the iguanas quickly escaped.
A guy in Florida loaded his car up with frozen iguanas and then they came back to life while he was driving. https://t.co/FBFtpR5SyI pic.twitter.com/wxQobX33Un
— Chris Ostertag (@videograndpa) January 6, 2018
So far, we haven't heard any stories of this happening this go-around, but let's give it some time. All-in-all, the iguanas are fine and the Floridians made it through this cold blast of air. Thank goodness.
