In the midst of storm Elliott, the "blizzard of the century" which paralyzed nine American states, Florida saw its iguanas fall from the trees.
A natural phenomenon for these cold-blooded reptiles "whose body temperature is directly linked to the temperature of the environment", explains veterinarian and journalist Hélène Gateau.
“To survive in the face of the cold, they will stiffen up, like freezing, she comments, so as to limit their caloric expenditure”.
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A strategy that allows iguanas to survive, as soon as the temperature drops below 10°C, but that does not prevent them… from falling from trees.
“At one point, says Hélène Gateau, they freeze so much that they no longer have the strength to hang on to the trees and they fall.
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The iguanas still risk death if the cold intensifies: “It is only a way of surviving for a very specific period.
They are not made to be in this frozen state for too long, ”concludes the veterinarian.