Modern Cowboy Life

Invasive Iguanas: Hunting Puerto Rico s Giant Lizards

by Parlo

on Oct 22

No season. No limits. Kill them all. As much as we hunters hew to expectations of responsible behavior, those words have their own magic. They were spoken by John Ray, the marketing wunderkind who represents the big-bore air gun company Hatsan USA, and they were followed by an invitation: Would I want to travel to Puerto Rico to shoot iguanas with air rifles?

httpswww.outdoorlife.comsitesoutdoorlife.comfilesimport2015201507IntroAlt.JPG — Pure, incandescent expectation may have caused me to mumble my simple answer: Sí. This is how I ended up on the southern coast of Puerto Rico, a .35-caliber air rifle in my hands, shooting at fruit-eating lizards that are causing environmental havoc on the Caribbean island.

httpswww.outdoorlife.comsitesoutdoorlife.comfilesimport2015201507Photo1.JPG — The premise for our trip was twofold. From Hatsan’s perspective, they were looking for opportunities to get their large-bore air rifles in the hands of American hunters and writers. What better off-season opportunity than to target nuisance lizards on a tropical island? But the other reason is one that spoke to me: Non-native iguanas are rapidly taking over the rural and even urban habitat in Puerto Rico, and the island needs to remove as many of these reptiles as possible. In other words, this was less a junket than a public service.

httpswww.outdoorlife.comsitesoutdoorlife.comfilesimport2015201507Photo2_0.JPG

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