If you have been on Facebook and X for the last week, you more than likely have seen videos and photos of frozen iguanas in Florida. If you haven’t seen the videos, take a look: Ultimate Florida man edition. A blanket of frozen iguanas pic.twitter.com/ogFEgmzUb6 — Justin Hart (@justin_hart) February 2, 2026 MASSIVE Frozen Iguana’s in Florida, falling out of trees like it’s raining. That are not dead, just in a sleep state because of the cold. pic.twitter.com/rajpOQ3a0s — SweetMarie (@Oceanbreeze473) February 4, 2026 Southwest #Florida PSAIf you see an #Iguanas frozen mid-life, it’s not dead.It’s just having an emotional reaction to winter. pic.twitter.com/fRtOWPX3xf — Jeff Tumbarello (@Jeff_Tumbarello) February 5, 2026 Just look at all of them: South Florida company collects over 1,000 frozen iguanas. https://t.co/NGxBiCb6Ns pic.twitter.com/80luA7dIGK — WPEC CBS12 News (@CBS12) February 2, 2026 Euro News explained why the iguanas are frozen: The otherwise sunny US state of Florida is currently experiencing unusually low temperatures. Temperatures have plummeted below freezing in parts of Florida, the USA’s ‘sunshine state’. In Tampa Bay, snowflakes fell for the first time in well over a decade. But that’s not the strangest thing falling from the skies: thousands of cold-stunned green iguanas have been dropping onto streets, pavements and front gardens. Unable to generate their own body heat, green iguanas are dependent on warmth from outside. As soon as the thermometer drops below around 10 degrees Celsius, they become lethargic. Between around 4 and 7 degrees, the cold-blooded reptiles enter a stunned state of temporary, survival-mode paralysis. Some Floridians are eating the iguanas: Tastes so dam good . Iguana Taco's Florida style pic.twitter.com/DWM2s2PoSD — wolf_patriot737 (@Ultra_USMAga_FL) February 4, 2026 Fox News provided details on how many have been removed: More than 5,000 invasive green iguanas in Florida were removed during the state’s two-day exemption that allowed residents and visitors to capture the cold-stunned reptiles without a permit, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The state wildlife agency announced this week that 5,195 cold-stunned iguanas were collected and brought to four designated FWC offices on Feb. 1 and Feb. 2 during South Florida’s period of record-setting cold temperatures. “The removal of over 5,000 of these nonnative lizards in such a short time span was only possible thanks to the coordinated efforts of many staff members in multiple FWC divisions and offices, our partners and, of course, the many residents that took the time to collect and turn in cold-stunned iguanas from their properties,” Roger Young, FWC’s executive director, said at a Feb. 4 meeting in Tallahassee. Special regulations under an executive order allowed people to remove live, cold-stunned iguanas from the wild without a permit for two days only, the FWC said in a news release. Of the 5,195 iguanas collected, 3,882 of them were amassed at the FWC’s office in Sunrise, about 13 miles west of Fort Lauderdale, the FWC said. Another 1,075 were collected at the FWC’s location in Tequesta, some 24 miles north of West Palm Beach. There were 215 iguanas collected at the drop-off location in the Florida Keys and 23 nabbed in Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast. FWC staff worked to coordinate the transfer of iguanas collected to permit holders, including for sale outside the state. Any of the reptiles that couldn’t be transferred to permit holders were humanely killed by trained staff, according to the FWC.