Taiwan’s iguana population has exploded since the spikey-backed giant lizards were introduced from Central and South America more than 20 years ago as exotic pets. Now, armed with slingshots, harpoons, and darts, bounty hunters are being hired by the government to cull the lizard population invading neighbourhoods and ravaging crops.
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00:00There are a lot of them by the river or next to the fishpond.
00:14There are more of them on the trees.
00:21There are more of them by the river.
00:25Hi, you caught a big one.
00:32Okay.
00:36It's hard to catch when you catch it like that.
00:39I can't catch it this time.
00:44It's about the size of a month.
00:49There are 200 of them in the peak season every night for 6 hours.
00:54Of course, it's a team effort, not just me, it's a team effort, everyone working together.
00:58If we're talking about individuals, 30 to 50 chickens a night is not a problem.
01:04Of course, the temperature is also a very important factor.
01:08Because the weather is cold, it's harder for them to come out.
01:11We started to be threatened by greenhouse gases about five or six years ago, but at that time there were only a few.
01:38Later on, more and more of them started to reproduce, and more and more of them started to eat plants.
01:42That's when people started to encroach on them and focus on this problem.
01:47We can only encroach on them, because their movements are very fast.
01:52We can't catch them at all.
01:54This greenhouse gas is actually a native species of Central America.
02:09It's a foreign species to Taiwan.
02:13In fact, it's also because people treat it as a pet.
02:44Put it next to it.
02:55Mom.