DZ: The news you've been waiting for; the Nile Monitor lizard has arrived

David Fleshler at the Sun Sentinel has this article which will be welcome news to some. The C-51 Canal is mentioned in the article. For those of you unaware, the C-51 Canal is the border between Lake Worth and West Palm Beach (you drive over it on Dixie Hwy). From the article:

     These carnivorous lizards are big enough to eat cats. [emphasis added] And now shotgun-toting wildlife officers plan to kill as many Nile monitors as they can before breeding season.
     The African reptiles, which can grow to 5 feet long, have established a breeding population along the C-51 canal and nearby waterways in central Palm Beach County, where they devour native wildlife.
     Although state wildlife officials have been hunting them down for several years, they plan a new push now, since the approach of breeding season makes the lizards more active and easier to spot.
     "We have found that the population hasn't spread very far from the C-51 Canal, and if we increase the pressure, we might be able to eradicate them," said Jenny Ketterlin Eckles, non-native wildlife biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

You can read much more about the Nile Monitor lizard at the Florida Fish and Wildlife website. Here is a picture from their site: