It's weird when lizards fall out of trees
Posted on Sunday, 01.24.10
BY GLENN TERRY
Special to The Miami Herald

Two weeks ago it was raining lizards in South Florida. The cold temperatures made a million or more geckos, iguanas and Cuban anoles lose their grip and fall out of trees.

Didn't you find it hard to sleep with all those critters hitting the ground?

My wife and I tried to imagine we were hearing large raindrops.

The morning told us different. We waded out into a front yard littered by a sea ( OK, about a dozen) of those once fleet-footed beasts.

Picking them up, I couldn't tell if they were dead or in some sort of cold-induced coma. I arranged them on the hood of my car.

Later I moved them to a large, warm rock where the sun brought half back to life.

Sunday night was another freezer so I booked the still stiff six into a room at our home's Hotel Tupperware.

On Monday I took them to the elementary school where I teach. By then, two of the lizards were slowly moving. The duo spent the day entertaining 10-year-olds while the ``frozen four'' were given a sunny spot in the schoolyard.

The next morning the four were gone. Maybe they crawled off or perhaps the birds ate them. The last two seemed eager to return to the trees.

My students and I set them free, happy to be helping our mosquito-eating friends.