Another non-native species
Asian water monitor can be purchased legally on internet
is terrorizing a South Florida neighborhood. This time it’s a lizardlike animal that easily — and cheaply — can be purchased online.
The seven-foot lizard terrorizing a South Florida family is a species that can be legally purchased online for less than $200.
The Asian water monitor is popular among exotic pet enthusiasts — those who prefer ball pythons, tarantulas, scorpions and other less-than-cuddly creatures to the more standard dogs and cats.
You can buy a baby one with a credit card from Snakes at Sunset of Miami for $169.99, with the live lizard shipped to your home by FedEx. Underground Reptiles of Deerfield Beach sells them for $69.99. Go!Lizards of Kansas sells them for $135. Adults command higher prices, New England Reptile Distributors charging from $750 to more than $1,000.
According to Reptiles magazine, young ones require a diet of “fish, frogs and an occasional newborn rodent.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has restricted personal ownership of Burmese pythons, green anacondas, Nile monitors and other species considered harmful if they escape captivity. But the agency has imposed no restrictions on ownership of Asian water monitors.
For the past two weeks, a 7-foot, 150-pound Asian monitor has been turning up around the Davie home of Zachary and Maria Lieberman, who have two young children. They called trappers, but so far no one has been able to catch it. State wildlife officials say it’s probably a pet that escaped or was released.
Although Lieberman says he has nothing against responsible exotic pet owners, he thinks there should be some legal safeguards in place to prevent just anyone from acquiring a potentially dangerous animal.
“I don’t think you should be able to go on the internet and buy one with a credit card,” he said. “I’d like to see more restrictions on who can acquire them — proper caging and precautions to make sure they don’t escape.”
In the past two years, the state wildlife commission has received 14 calls about water monitor lizards in different parts of Florida.
These are thought to be isolated cases of escaped or released pets. Unlike Burmese pythons, Nile monitors or green iguanas, the Asian water monitor has not established a breeding, self-sustaining population in Florida. But the wildlife commission says it takes the reports seriously because water monitors could be dangerous to people, particularly if cornered, and kill native wildlife.