Taiwan's gold mine and disaster at the same time (6 photos)

Taiwan is currently experiencing an unusual problem – it is being overrun by spiny iguanas! It’s not like they are all local. They were brought here as exotic pets 20 years ago.





Who would keep such things at home en masse!? Spiny

And then many of them escaped or were thrown out by their owners. They quickly multiplied in the warm climate of southern Taiwan. And so it began! Iguanas began to devastate farmers’ crops. They need to eat something.

Who is the iguana police

The government had to introduce a new unit to confront the animals. And not wolves or bears, the police protect people from lizards.

As a weapon, they were given a slingshot with iron darts, because this is not a department of especially dangerous crimes to issue a pistol. And it is expensive.



A cool night squad of iguana hunters

In total, it is planned to destroy several tens of thousands of iguanas so that they cease to be a real threat to agriculture and people.

The police go hunting in groups, but not because iguanas are dangerous alone. And because it is easier to drive them together - if one misses, the other can hit.

One iguana carcass can fetch up to 500 New Taiwan dollars.





Warming himself in the bushes on a branch, iguanas are doing well in their country!

On a good day, a team of hunters could get up to 300 iguanas ($4,200).

But the hunter's luck is a capricious thing, if you don't stumble upon your favorite habitat, you can wander around for several hours and find only two or three iguanas. Feel like a fortune hunter.

Moreover, iguanas live in the crowns of trees, covered with leaves, they are difficult to spot. And when they spin along the trunk, it is very difficult to hit them even with five darts.

There is no end to this war



Yesterday there were big ones, but five, and today there are small ones, but three

Taiwan started killing iguanas almost 10 years ago, and this year the target was set at over 100,000. An incredible amount, enough to get incredibly rich and become the iguana king.

But if the fight has been going on for ten years, there is a suspicion that local hunters can breed iguanas themselves to hand them over to the state. The same thing happened in India with cobras or with rats in Vietnam, I think.

Taiwan's green iguana population is estimated at 200,000. Female iguanas reproduce once a year, laying dozens of eggs at a time.

"Climate anomalies" have fueled the iguana population in recent years. A lack of seasonal rains and unusually warm winters have increased hatching and survival rates, creating "the perfect storm for a population explosion."



Tourists, of course, find the exotic and fun. Iguanas love to eat bean sprouts and green beans.

Now the government is in a panic looking for new strategies to combat the lizards. No matter how much they pay for the carcasses, the number of iguanas does not decrease every year.

Non-flying locusts

Iguanas are not small, so they do not eat like birds, but eat thoroughly. If they crawl out onto a field of red beans, they can eat it pretty quickly.

Local farmers put nets around the fields so that they do not crawl through. But iguanas are quite heavy and can bend and drop the net.

In addition, the appearance of the spiny lizard scares ordinary farmers, they are not moles. That is why they are caught with caution, rather they are scared off the field. Which does not solve the problem.



Meanwhile, Americans: LET'S ATTACH GO PRO TO THE IGUANA

It's funny to realize that all this trouble was brought upon themselves by the people who decided that a pet iguana is cute. The Japanese government has the right to prohibit bringing anything to the islands.