State a ‘Jurassic Park’ for invasive species

The Lieberman family in Davie had a surprise visitor last year. A 6-foot-long, 100-pound, meat-eating lizard showed up on their back porch.

“It looked like a dinosaur,” Maria Lieberman told WSVN 7News. “My kids were screaming. We just watched ‘Jurassic Park,’ so it was insane.”

Her children, ages 2 and 4, were too terrified to go outside. It turned out the Asian water monitor belonged to a neighborhood kid.

“Bamboo” was its name, and it had escaped from its pen. That raises a couple of questions:

How did a mini-dinosaur from Southeast Asia end up in Southeast Florida? And why was a 14-year-old Florida boy allowed to acquire Bamboo and keep him as a pet?

It’s a combination of perplexing regulations, foot dragging and lobbying power. The situation is magnified by a balmy Florida climate that makes it a 65,755-square-mile welcome mat for all sorts of things Mother Nature did not intend to be here.

“It’s about as bad in Florida as it gets anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife biologist at the University of Florida.

The invasion actually began when Spanish explorers came ashore with feral hogs. Those original Spanish hogs have been joined by more than 500 other nonnative plants, reptiles and mammals, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Not all nonnative species disrupt the environment. “Invasive” ones spread beyond small areas and reproduce. State agencies have identified 194 invasive plants and 126 invasive animals.

With no native predators or herbivores to keep them in check, nonnative species are like tourists who move into your house, ransack your kitchen and refuse to leave.

Is it hyperbolic blather to say the invasion is turning Florida into Jurassic Park? Ask a rabbit or bobcat or fox in the Everglades — if you can find one.

Burmese pythons have gobbled just about all of them up. Their tale is a microcosm of how a problem has become a crisis.

There were no disaster plans required for wildlife exhibits when Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992. The storm destroyed wildlife exhibits, and an unknown number of liberated reptiles headed to the nearest swamp.

At the same time, the exotic pet industry boomed. About 100,000 Burmese pythons were imported to the U.S. between 1996 and 2006.

Some Floridians bought the snakes as hatchlings, then released them when the little reptiles started turning into 15-foot-long eating machines.

The Everglades became their buffet. In 2006, the South Florida Water Management District asked the federal government to ban importing pythons.

Under pressure from pet industry lobbying, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service vacillated for years. The bill finally passed in 2012.

State regulators still were not convinced pythons presented a major problem.

“Do I think we have an impending disaster?” Scott Hardin, the state FWC’s exotic species coordinator, said in 2012. “I don’t think so.”

He was correct that the disaster wasn’t impending. It had long since begun. By the time the door was closed, pythons had left the barn.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are tens of thousands of Burmese pythons prowling the Everglades. It’s impossible to calculate the number of lionfish, Old World climbing ferns, cane toads, and other environmental disruptors roaming, swimming and spreading throughout Florida.

The FWC still largely takes a wait-andsee approach to potential invaders. Only seven snakes and one lizard are on the state “conditional list,” meaning they can’t be sold as pets and a permit is required for other uses.

That group includes six types of pythons, the green anaconda and the Nile monitor.

Four snake species were added in February to the “prohibited” list, which is similar to the conditional list. That still leaves a huge menagerie of creatures for sale.

Why aren’t more invasive species on banned lists?

“Not all nonnative species are harmful to Florida’s ecology, economy or human health and safety,” an FWC spokesperson said in an email. “The FWC uses risk assessments and screenings to determine what species present a high level of risk.”

But a lot are harmful, yet they retain diplomatic immunity.

Green iguanas have become such a nuisance the FWC recently encouraged Floridians to “kill green iguanas on their own property whenever possible.” Yet you can still buy them at pet stores or trade fairs.

Lizards like “Bamboo” can be bought online for $169.

Tegus aren’t on the banned lists, yet thousands of the large lizards have devoured just about everything on nature’s menu, including alligator eggs.

Isn’t the alligator our official state reptile?

The invasive species crisis is way too complex to be solved by a few new regulations. But the state’s wait-and-see approach isn’t working.

We’ve seen a handful of pythons turn into an unstoppable army. We’ve see lionfish take over reefs and devour 90 percent of the native juvenile fish. We’ve seen Old World climbing ferns swallow entire islands.

We’ve seen more than enough to know “Jurassic Park” talk isn’t just hyperbolic blather.