Agriculture affected, Taiwan plans to cull more than 1 lakh green iguanas

Pingtung : Taiwan plans to cull up to 120,000 green iguanas, with supporters urging humane methods to bring down the animal’s population, which is wreaking havoc on the island’s agricultural sector.

Around 200,000 of the reptiles are believed to be in the island’s southern and central areas, which are heavily dependent on farming, according Chiu Kuo-hao of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency. Specially recruited hunting teams killed about 70,000 iguanas last year, with bounties of up to $15 each. Local governments have asked the public to help identify iguana nests and they recommend fishing spears as the most humane means of killing the animals.

“A lot of people bought them as cute little pets, not realising how big and long-lived they would become, so they set them free in the wild, where they’ve really taken to the Taiwanese environment,” said Lee Chi-ya of the agricultural department in the southern county of Pingtung.

“That’s allowed them to reproduce at a considerable rate, necessitating us to cull them and restore the balance of nature.” Green iguanas have no natural predators in Taiwan and have moved into areas that can be difficult to access.