'Frozen' iguanas everywhere: Florida roads, sidewalks, yards

Cindy Krischer Goodman, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Feb 1, 2026

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South Floridians awoke Sunday to find “frozen” iguanas in their yards, streets, sidewalks and driveways after record low temperatures stunned the invasive reptiles.

At 8:50 a.m., 10 minutes before the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission opened its Sunrise drop-off location Sunday morning, John Bridgman and his wife, Lindsey, waited with a trash bag filled with two dozen iguanas.

The FWC opened five designated drop-off offices in the South and Southwest regions on Sunday and Monday to temporarily allow people to remove live, cold-stunned green iguanas from the wild without a permit.

When temperatures drop and sustain to near-freezing or below, reptiles and amphibians, including nonnative green iguanas, can go into a state of torpor, where they temporarily lose muscle control and appear “frozen,” according to the FWC.

“We got a few babies … one was pretty big,” John Bridgman said. “We went around our yard, and the rest had just fallen in the road or onto sidewalks in our community.”

Bridgman, a native New Yorker, said over his 24 years in Florida, he typically places “frozen” iguanas in the sun to defrost. This year, he saw the FWC notice about the drop-off locations. “Our HOA usually hires someone to catch them and get rid of them because of issues with them and the pool. I’m an outdoorsman and figured this is a way to help the state.”

While the Bridgmans were among the first iguana drop-offs, hundreds more followed. South Floridians brought cold-stunned iguanas in trash bags, plastic tubs and garbage pails.

Sunday’s cold snap provided an opportunity to capture and transport iguanas which have invaded South Florida communities, eating landscaping and pooping in swimming pools. The FWC’s executive order provided a unique opportunity for the public to remove green iguanas from their property and bring them to the FWC, without a permit, “for humane killing or, in some cases, transfer to permittees for live-animal sales.”

Tyler Dawson, originally from Canada, brought five “frozen” green iguanas in a milk crate to the Sunrise location. He had collected them from along Orange Drive in Davie, an area abundant with the green iguanas that typically scatter across the bike path.

Brayden Carr, of the FWC, placed the captured reptiles into cloth sacks.

Across the tri-county area on Sunday, South Florida residents posted photos and videos on social media showing “frozen” iguanas in their driveways, streets and yards, some having fallen from trees. Some posts included curious dogs encountering them.