The News-Press, news-press.com, Cape Coral, Lizards loom large in cat’s death
Lizards loom large in cat’s death
Monitors captured in Cape eyed in fatal feline attack
By Gabriella Souza
gsouza@news-press.com
Originally posted on July 12, 2007
In two cages sit two suspected killers, their fate sealed.
The suspects are monitor lizards, and they are to be euthanized, the regular practice for any captured monitor lizard, an exotic that can grow to be 7 feet long and has run rampant in Cape Coral for years.
Their alleged crime?
The killing and eating of Largo, a black and white 16-year-old outdoor cat.
Phil Spana, Largo's owner and a Cape Coral resident, found his cat's remains last Friday. Or rather, he found part of the remains.
"I found two paws and most of a tail," he said.
Spana suspected a monitor lizard to be the culprit because he had seen one prowling around his canalfront property a couple of weeks ago. But he said this was the first time he'd seen one on his property in a few years.
Monitor lizards first arrived in Cape Coral in 1990. They were believed to be pets released into the wild.
So far this year, Cape Coral has trapped 46 or 47 lizards, said Harry Phillips, the city's environmental biologist. That number is ahead of a typical pace, especially because the city normally traps about 60 a year, but he said the addition of two staff members who also can trap is the reason.
The two lizards in question, one of which is longer than 6 feet, were captured near Spana's house Wednesday morning: one at Trafalgar Parkway and 17th Street and the other at Trafalgar Parkway and Surfside Boulevard.
The lizards hadn't been euthanized as of Wednesday afternoon. Once they are killed, their remains will be frozen and stored, then picked up by the University of Tampa. A lab there will preform a necropsy and determine whether either ate the cat based on stomach contents.
Though this would be the first documented account of a monitor lizard in Cape Coral preying on anything larger than a burrowing owl, Phillips doesn't think either one is guilty because the evidence doesn't point the finger decisively at the lizards.
"It could be a bobcat. It could be a snake bite, or it could have died of natural causes," he said.
Phillips said Largo's remains provide a valuable clue. Monitor lizards don't usually leave leftovers.
"They'll eat anything, including paws," he said.
And the remains were scattered around Spana's property, which indicate that the cat could have died and then been eaten by vultures, he said.
Spana said he was worried about having the lizards around his neighborhood. He is especially worried for his neighbors who also have pets.
"It would be a shame to see another one get eaten," he said.
