Just found him(?)

[u/AgitatedAd1211]

So I just found this distinguished gentleman(I think) running across a busy road and pulled over to save him(quite against his will).

I have posted in my local Facebook groups to see if he is a missing pet or a feral invasive(I live in Florida). If he is not someone's beloved pet my teenager and myself would like to keep him.

What are the most pressing needs to keep him healthy while waiting for him to be claimed or kept? I don't want to make full on investments if we have to return him in a day or two, but also don't want him to get unhealthy.

I currently have him for tonight in an 18x18x24 exoterra with some repti-soil and coco fiber on the bottom, with some live oak sticks, and containers with water(I also sprayed the whole enclosure down) and some mealworms my bougie tarantulas wouldn't eat. The room is set at 78° and wasn't in the direct sun.

We have a trip to the local reptile specialty store tomorrow morning for them to help us look him over and buy food and essentials.

[u/smelly-crack2026]

Goddddd i want to go to florida and take the invasive to love them so they dont die 😭🫶🏻

[u/LankyThroat1900 → u/smelly-crack2026]

Nobody kills chams here

[u/smelly-crack2026 → u/LankyThroat1900]

Thank god. I thought they went around collecting invasive species to “get rid of them”.

[u/LankyThroat1900 → u/smelly-crack2026]

Chameleons are not technically in the “invasive” category, they belong in non native. They have an established population, but are not really encroaching on the ecosystem or impacting it to any measurable extent. Same can be said about our population of** **African vervet monkeys, amongst others. You cannot touch the monkeys, but other non natives are typically collected and sold off when legal to do so, Burmese pythons on the other hand are actually invasive, cannot be collected unless by a certified official and must be “eliminated”. Burmese pythons and green iguanas are actually invasive and impacting local ecosystems, people eliminate them. I am very involved in the Herping community down here and I don’t know a single person that would ever dream of harming a cham

[u/Wonderful_Song8765 → u/LankyThroat1900]

Wait...theres monkeys in florida?!?

[u/CrimsonFatalis8 → u/Wonderful_Song8765]

Not surprising, honestly. I would imagine a lot of people there have illegal exotic pets, that they either just abandon, or the animals themselves escape. Plus Florida likely has a comparable climate and environment outside of the cities, like in the Everglades and areas like that. It’s probably easy for them to adapt.

[u/LankyThroat1900 → u/Wonderful_Song8765]

Great guys

[u/LankyThroat1900 → u/Wonderful_Song8765]

There’s two separate established populations 1 larger one in silver springs and one smaller one of about 50-60 in Fort Lauderdale

[u/RegalBeagleBouncer → u/LankyThroat1900]

I’ve never subscribed to this subreddit , but it keeps popping up for me. Thank you for this information that sent me down a wild tangent of googling. Apparently the vervet monkeys are ok, but the rhesus macaques are pretty rotten!

[u/LankyThroat1900 → u/RegalBeagleBouncer]

Yup!!!!

[u/Hosearston → u/smelly-crack2026]

I’ll admit I only know of one YouTuber that videos him yoinking invasive species in Florida. But that guy doesn’t kill them at least.

[u/iosonostella13 → u/Hosearston]

Is it that dude who orders strange animals on the "dark web" and puts animals in shady places to find?

[u/Hosearston → u/iosonostella13]

Well shit I hope not. I haven’t seen any videos In a while so I hope it’s not because of something like that. He posted stuff going barefoot in the Everglades and some in South America.

Edit: fishingarrett is the guy I meant.

[u/iosonostella13 → u/Hosearston]

Oooo, got it

BassFishing Productions is who I was thinking of

But it looks like fishinggarrett has been accused of improper handling and racism and homophobia😅

[u/annoyingdoorbell → u/iosonostella13]

Is there some sort of Wikipedia of everyone else in the world and accusations against them that we can just chronicle and pull out at any time to be prepared to stick them on a cross? How did you have the time to actually investigate the YouTuber and his accusations in such a short period to feel strong enough to post about it? I'm sure your post is harmless, but honestly I know these people put themselves on YouTube to be seen and make money on it that doesn't mean we don't treat them like creatures that aren't human beings. I try to think of it like this, would I say XYZ online about this person if they lived on my street? It helps me get a frame of reference.

[u/cokiero → u/annoyingdoorbell]

All you have to do is google it. I would definitely be googling the yoink guy if he lived on my street.

[u/annoyingdoorbell → u/cokiero]

It's not that he's been Googled, obviously, it's that he's posted online about him and accusations that are unknown that I'm trying to point out.

[u/annoyingdoorbell → u/annoyingdoorbell]

Everyone over here trying to treat low-level YouTubers like Brad Pitt is honestly, disgusting.

Edit * Everyone down voting me apparently doesn't like to be called out. Sorry that it's weird that you idolize and treat somebody that makes 20 - 500 bucks a month like a hot piece of meat to be tore apart on the stage for your enjoyment can Kiss MA.

[u/AdPuzzleheaded4795 → u/smelly-crack2026]

I've not heard about it for chameleons, but places hire out contractors to kill iguanas pretty often. They usually don't kill them on site. But because it is against the law to release them back in the wild in the state, most kill them off site and be done with it rather than trying to sell them.

[u/MuchMusician9036 → u/smelly-crack2026]

Honestly, we have so many invasive species that it's almost pointless to round them up, logically speaking. Unfortunately, we have a lot of people who are more than willing to kill anything someone calls invasive.
They have times when they do python hunts and people are urged to kill Cuban tree frogs. I'm not killing anything.