For invasive reptile hunters in Florida, there’s another predatory lizard on the radar. Nile monitor lizards, native to Africa and inhabiting parts of the Sunshine State, can now be hunted year-round without a license or hunting license.
Python cowboy Mike Kimmel is known for targeting Florida’s most unwanted invasive species, including Burmese pythons and green iguanas. Kimmel is now also targeting the Nile monitor lizard, which he calls “the new invasive species that’s coming” in a new YouTube video (above). The video includes a clip from the past in which he gets into a fight with a monitor lizard about six feet long, with the help of his dog Otto.
“The Nile monitor is essentially like a smaller Komodo dragon,” Kimmel said in the video. “This is a predatory lizard, and they don’t mess around. They’re not stupid. They’re more like a cross between a python and an iguana. That’s a good way to look at them.”
Kimmel owns Martin County Trapping and Wildlife Rescue, and his hunting efforts focus on Florida’s southeastern coast. But in the west of the state, the Nile Monitor is nothing new. They have been trapped in and around Cape Coral in Lee County for about 20 years.
“Over this 20-year period, our environmental resources staff have captured hundreds of lizards, now close to 800,” Harry Phillips, an environmental biologist with the City of Cape Coral, told CNN outdoor living in an email. “There are some, but the numbers are significantly reduced.”
Phillips said Cape Coral has the largest population of striped invasive lizards in the state. The area is also home to Florida’s largest population of burrowing owls. Burrowing owls are nine inches tall and are listed as a threatened species in Florida. They live in caves and are active during the day. Niles behaved similarly.
Nile monitors are large, aggressive predators that have expanded throughout Florida’s canal system. Photography: David/Adobe Stock
“The Nile monitor has a strictly carnivorous appetite,” Phillips said. “Having predators like the Nile Monitor in Florida can cause damage to native species and pose further threats to listed species such as gopher tortoises and burrowing owls.”
Originally added to Florida’s prohibited species list in 2021, the Nile monitor is a semi-aquatic species that can survive on land near salt or freshwater. They eat bugs, fish, frogs, small alligators, birds and their eggs, and small mammals. They have also been known to attack small pets and livestock, such as chickens.
Nile monitor lizards are considered “relocated alien species” that have either been released or escaped from captivity. They can grow up to 6.5 feet long and weigh nearly 20 pounds. They are fast runners, reaching speeds of around 18 miles per hour, and are strong swimmers, capable of holding their breath underwater for about an hour. Their ability to survive in a variety of habitats, including mangroves and swamps, allowed them to expand through Florida’s extensive canal infrastructure.
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“South Florida’s extensive canal system may provide dispersal corridors for these species, which tend to live near water,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission noted in its regulatory status report. “FWC’s current efforts include aggressive patrols to remove Nile monitor lizards from known populations and rapid response to monitor lizards discovered in new areas.”
The FWC encourages the public to report all Nile monitor lizard sightings in the state by calling the agency or through the online mapping system.
