On Jan. 30, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission lifted a rule that prohibited the public from handling cold-stunned iguanas, so people could help the lizards or turn them into the FWC
Following a bout of abnormally cold temperatures in Florida, one resident creatively kept warm by using the state's invasive green iguana population, making a "blanket" out of the lizards.
The iguanas featured in the makeshift blanket are cold-stunned lizards. As a cold-blooded reptile, an iguana depends on its environment to regulate its body temperature. When temperatures drop below 40 degrees, the iguana's body shuts down, causing it to fall from trees and remain paralyzed until it warms up.
A viral video of the iguana blanket, by influencer @Stackz, shows a man lying in a sunny parking lot, resting with his eyes closed under a pile of iguanas. Dozens of iguanas lay across the man's body, covering the person from neck to ankle.
"Is it that cold, bro?" another person calls from behind the camera.
The iguana-covered man then claims he was "trying to sleep." He says it felt like 30 degrees outside, but he estimates his personal temperature is more like 100 degrees because of the pile of insulating iguanas.
Based on some wiggling from the "blanket," it appears a few of the cold-stunned iguanas are regaining their strength in the warmth, wagging their tails and crawling off the man.
At the video's end, the man clarifies that the cold-blooded iguanas are not dead, but rather in brumation -- reptiles' version of hibernation. According to The Weather Channel, iguanas' bodies shut down at temperatures below 40 degrees as a "defense mechanism against the cold."
At the start of winter in November 2025, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) advised residents not to handle or assist iguanas and had regulations in place to prohibit such actions. But on Jan. 30, after a prolonged stretch of cold weather in Florida, which affected thousands of iguanas, the FWC issued an executive order allowing people to handle and remove iguanas from their property.
Floridians were given the option to turn in the cold-stunned iguanas they collected to the FWC. According to NBC Miami, the agency received over 1,000 iguanas after the executive order was announced.
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Over the weekend, Florida saw some especially frigid temperatures set in. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Tampa dropped just below 28 degrees, and in Orlando, to 24 degrees, on Feb. 1. In Tallahassee, temperatures dipped to 18 degrees on Feb. 2, making for especially challenging conditions for the state's invasive iguanas.
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