Random Wild Animals That Cause Serious Problems In Florida (13 items)

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  (#3) Rhesus Macaque

  • Macaca mulatta

  In 1938, a tug boat operator named Colonel Tooey purchased a bunch of rhesus macaques from an exotic wildlife dealer to spice up his jungle boat touring business. Tooey released these monkeys on a small man-made island, from which they ventured into Florida and started rapidly reproducing. As of January 2016, an estimated 200 rhesus monkeys live in Silver Springs Park, Florida.

  That may not seem like a ton of monkeys, but these animals are actually quite a hazard to anyone they come in contact with because they carry the Herpes-B virus. The virus kills a whopping 8% of people who contract it, and anyone who gets a scratch or touches a monkey's bodily fluids is at risk.
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  (#9) Cuban tree frog

  • Osteopilus septentrionalis

  Almost every animal that's wreaking havoc in Florida isn't native to the land. They're very unwelcome visitors, and Cuban tree frogs are no different. These little guys aren't even native to North America, but they're found almost everywhere in Florida, from Cedar Keys to Orlando. Cuban tree frogs greatly threaten every other frog species in Florida.

  These little guys are ferocious eaters, consuming spiders and insects like a typical frog. However, they also gobble up other frogs, toads, and lizards. They're a growing threat to Florida's biodiversity. 
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  (#1) Giant African snail

  • Achatina fulica

  This nightmarish snail, which looks like something out of a horrific sci-fi film, is terrorizing south Florida residents. While you'll have more luck outrunning a snail than you would an alligator, these guys have some wormy friends, and their friends are packing. USGS biologists collected tissue samples from a bunch of these squishy suckers and found out that they carry the rat lungworm parasite.

  This parasitic burrows into humans and causes painful headaches, vomiting, and a stiff neck. In the worst cases, it can transmit meningitis to humans. Anyone who picks up a snail is at risk. 
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  (#6) Alligator

  • Alligator

  Florida is famous for two things: Disney World and alligators. In fact, their football team is even named the Florida Gators. But watch out! The actual alligators are real living, breathing reptiles that could kill your family's dog. What's most dangerous about these massive creatures is that they're opportunistic feeders. They'll eat almost anything, if given the chance. 

  In addition, many alligators have also completely lost their fear of humans. This dramatically increases the potential of dangerous encounters, and unprovoked alligator attacks are becoming increasingly more common. Every once in a while, they've been known to accidentally go for a human. In a famous case in 2016, a young boy was dragged into the water by a gator at a Disney World resort. 

  Alligators are basically the kings of Florida. Over a million of them roam freely, getting stuck in people's backyard pools and making marshlands a hazard. The scariest part? An alligator can easily outrun any human. You don't have a chance if one decides you're its next meal. It's only a matter of time before they own the land and people start paying them rent. 
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  (#11) Mosquito

  • Culicidae

  Nobody likes mosquitos, but they're impossible to avoid anywhere stagnant water is plentiful. Since marshland takes up a large portion of Florida's real estate, it's no wonder the state is overrun with mosquitos. Everyone knows mosquitos are annoying because of their itchy bites, but in recent years, the obnoxious bugs have actually become a real hazard.

  In August of 2016, the pests caused an unprecedented Zika breakout, infecting 15 people with the disease. The types of mosquitos that carry this virus also carry other diseases like Dengue fever and chikungunya. Florida is trying to combat their mosquito issue with aerial spraying, but when a mosquito can breed in a space as small as a bottle cap, there's not a whole lot they can do. Besides, spraying doesn't even kill the larvae.
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  (#10) Nile monitor

  • Varanus niloticus

  These five-foot-long flesh-eating African lizards have been waging a war in Cape Coral's canals since the '80s. According to local legend, the exotic pets first started taking over the 400 miles of man-made canals within Cape Coral after a local pet store went bankrupt and let a group of monitor lizards free in an uninhabited area. Others speculate that exotic pet distributors planted them there so they could reproduce and be caught later and sold on the black market. Either way, their presence has caused a number of problems, including pet deaths and waning real estate prices.

  Apparently, people don't want to live in a place that's infested with dangerous lizards. These new-aged dinosaurs gobble up anything from bugs and road kill to endangered gopher tortoises and the family dog. They have no known predators in Florida except for metal traps and the odd alligator, but the city simply doesn’t have the resources to hire people to trap them. Unless the city can figure out a way to keep the population under control, the streets may not be safe for outdoor cats and even small children.

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