Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/07/16
By: C.F. Chen and Evelyn Kao
Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Kaohsiung City has captured some 238 green iguanas so far this year,
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Agriculture Bureau
under a culling program that it began in 2013 to maintain an ecological balance, a city official said Thursday.
In 2013, it was found that the city’s Niaosong District (鳥松) was a major habitat for wild green iguanas, the official said, citing a field study done by National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.
Kaohsiung’s Agriculture Bureau later that year commissioned the university to cull the non-native reptiles to help avert ecological and environmental problems, the official said.
The iguana population in Kaohsiung has grown as a result of owners abandoning or releasing the reptiles into the wild, the official said. [FULL STORY]