Taiwan to step up iguana eradication efforts in 2025: Ministry

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas in 2025 in an effort to curb the species' impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said Sunday.

In an interview with CNA, Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry's Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, said green iguanas have now been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung.

Although there are no reliable statistics on the species' total population in the country, it has been estimated to be around 200,000, Chiu said.

Chiu said around 70,000 iguanas had been culled in 2024, including some 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in Chiayi, 6,500 in Kaohsiung, 5,000 in Changhua and around 100 in several other cities and counties.

In 2025, thanks to NT$20 million (US$607,027) in funding allocated by the government, the MOA has set a goal of culling 120,000, he said.

Based on its past experience eradicating the African sacred ibis, the ministry is relying mainly on professional hunting teams to cull green iguanas, which have established their presence in nine cities and counties.

According to Chiu, around 300 people were recruited for the teams at hiring events held late last year in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung, while additional events will be held in Chiayi and Pingtung in the coming weeks.

Shortly after the Lunar New Year, the ministry is also planning to release a new agricultural damage reporting app, which will include a section where farmers can post information on iguana sightings, Chiu said.

In addition to threatening native species, iguanas are considered to be an agricultural pest, and have caused widespread damage to red bean, gourd and other vegetable crops in central and southern Taiwan.

As an incentive, the MOA is offering professional hunters a bounty of NT$500 for every iguana of at least 30 centimeters (snout to vent) they kill, and NT$200 for every one less than 30 cm.

For the general public, the bounties for iguanas are half that amount -- NT$250 and NT$100, Chiu said.

Chiu said his confidence in the iguana eradication effort drew in part from Taiwan's success in removing African ibises, which were largely brought under control over a five-year period.

Compared to 2019, when 18,000 of the wading birds were culled from the wild, it's now estimated that only around 50 of them remain in Taiwan, Chiu said.