Since October last year, the Taitung Forest District Office has received warnings from ecological workers and the media that Taitung is a at risk of an green iguana invasion. As a result, the Taitung Forest District Office has initiated the mentoring of partners participating in community forestry projects within the hotspot areas to actively engage in reporting sightings. Furthermore, the Taitung County Government has also been subsidized to implement the exotic and invasive species removal promotion program this year (2020). However, since April, the Taitung Forest District Office has received a large number of green iguana sighting reports in the coastal area of Donghe Township, Taitung County. In order to stop the green iguana population from expanding and endangering Taiwan's local ecology, the Taitung Forest District Office immediately invited the Taitung County Government and ecologists to collaborate and will soon promote the removal of individual animals and conduct distribution surveys in Taitung's green iguana sighting hotspots.
As green iguanas are highly reproductive, if they are not removed as soon as possible, they may cause ecological damage when the population becomes larger. Therefore, the removal of green iguanas cannot be delayed. The Taitung Forest District Office specially organized the "Understanding Green Iguana - Removal of Exotic and Invasive Species" biodiversity seminar today (22), and invited Mr. Tsai Shih-bin from Pingtung, who has experience in the removal of thousands of green iguanas, to give the lecture. The responsible departments, personnel, and volunteers who came to participate in the training learned about the animal's life history, as well as capture and removal techniques. By training these future trainers, it will strengthen the green iguana population removal taskforce in Taitung and we can guard the ecosystem of Taitung together.
The green iguana or American iguana (Iguana iguana) is an arboreal reptile native to Central and South America. It is a large lizard that can produce 20-70 eggs per clutch. The population can quickly expand in the wild in an environment without natural predators and with a suitable climate. Currently, invasive populations have been found in 15 countries, including Taiwan. The harm it poses, including the habit of digging, may damage the river embankment infrastructure and threaten the safety of agriculture, tourism, food, and biosafety, and lead to direct economic losses such as short-circuiting power networks and power outages, as well as road collapse or embankment erosion. It can also destroy vegetation and compete with the indigenous species, which will affect the local ecology.
The green iguana enters the environment mainly as "abandoned pets". Due to its gentle temperament and being easy to rear, it is popular in the pet market, with more than three million animals traded worldwide annually. However, most owners do not take into consideration the green iguana's adult size, which can be up to two meters long, so when the rearing space can no longer accommodate their size, the animal is discarded into the wild.
Strategic removal and long-term measures are necessary to prevent the spread and invasion of exotic species. The Taitung Forest District Office has partnered with local ecological work teams to carry out removal and to monitor the population distribution, which also serves to show the public the government's determination to remove exotic and invasive species. The Taitung Forest District Office urges the public not to keep green iguanas as pets, and not to willfully abandon the animal. In addition, adult green iguanas are too large to be caught by the public without professional assistance. If members of the public find a green iguana, please report it directly to the Taitung County Government's Citizen Service Hotline 1999, the Recreation Section of the Taitung Forest District Office (089-345493) or the 24-hour report hotline 0800-000-930, and a team of experienced removal personnel will come to provide on-site assistance.
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