Eating Aliens: One Man's Adventures Hunting Invasive Animal Species Read Online Free PDF Page A

for eating the nicker nut, a plant that also happens to be the primary food source of the endangered Miami blue butterfly. The only remaining population of these pretty butterflies is on Bahia Honda Key, right next to Big Pine. Take away too many of the nicker nuts, and the Miami blue butterfly will become extinct. As of today, it’s been a few years since anyone has seen one.
    At the RV park, my father-in-law and I set up the camper and sat at a picnic table beside it. A strong wind was coming straight off the water, which was only about thirty yards away. Somewhere out in the Caribbean, a hurricane was churning up the surf. We looked around at the omnipresent campground maintenance workers and contemplated the difficulty of the task at hand. On Gasparilla Island, I’d had the benefit of a local hunter to work with. He and I had land access and local knowledge. Down on Big Pine Key, Bob and I didn’t have any of that, but we did have a bunch of locals who thought our prey was cute.
    Hunting green iguanas and most other invasive species in the Keys is legal, as long as you mind exactly where you do it. Much of Big Pine is a federal refuge for a diminutive subspecies of white-tail deer known as the Key deer. Walking around on refuge land with an air rifle is likely to get you picked up by a Fish and Wildlife officer for attempting to poach deer.
    Most of the land that isn’t part of the refuge consists of residential neighborhoods, and hunting invasive species with an air rifle is perfectly legal there. Still, I’d have to expect witnesses to pitch a fit and call 911. Sure, I’d be on the right side of the law, as long as I wasn’t trespassing on private property, but this wasn’t a situation I wanted to find myself in.
    For about two days we scouted. It quickly became clear that there were green iguanas everywhere; it was equally clear that I was going to have a rough time closing the deal with any of them. Most of the iguanas I was seeing were either on private property I had no access to or in spots where it would be awkward to shoot.
    After spending some time cruising for green iguanas, we identified certain environments that looked like potential iguana habitat: open, grassy areas with a few shrubs, bordering thick mangroves or similar cover near water. Agile climbers as well as swimmers, green iguanas seem to prefer being close to water or thick cover or both, in order to have something to escape into. We weren’t going to be able to get any green iguanas by cruising slowly down the streets, the way I had when I was hunting for black spiny-tails with George Cera on Gasparilla Island; I would have to find a promising area and get dropped off to go in on foot, commando-style.
    Back at camp, I checked off a list of supplies to bring in with me on my mission. Air rifle, check. Lead pellets, check. Binoculars, belt hatchet, water, camouflage, hunting knife, video camera, plastic bags to hold the meat, first-aid kit, and a cell phone to call for a ride upon completion of the mission: all check.
    Bob drove me down a long access road that went off into the bush and eventually came to a dead end. There were no federal refuge signs and nothing that said NO TRESPASSING. He came to a stop near a place that looked as if it might be harboring iguanas, and I got out. He drove off, back toward civilization, and I melted into the mangroves as quickly as I could.
    It had seemed like a good idea to wear a pair of soft-soled water shoes instead of the combat boots that I usually favor while hunting; with the swampy terrain, I figured I might end up in the water. A few dozen spike-covered seedpods poking into my bleeding soles were an excellent argument against that decision. There was nothing for it: I gingerly pulled them out, and almost as quickly acquired more.
    I came upon an abandoned, boarded-up building in a clearing with grass up to my knees. This looked like green iguana territory for certain. I walked around the building