Florida Man Crafts ‘Iguana Blanket’ Out of Cold-Stunned Invasive Lizards

After an unusual stretch of cold weather swept across Florida, one resident found a bizarre way to stay warm: he piled the state’s invasive green iguanas on top of himself like a makeshift blanket.

The reptiles in the pile were “cold-stunned” iguanas. Because iguanas are cold-blooded, they rely on outside temperatures to regulate their body heat. When temperatures dip below about 40 degrees, their systems slow dramatically, and they can become immobilized—sometimes even dropping from trees—until they warm back up.

In a viral video posted by influencer @Stackz, a man is seen lying in a sunny parking lot with his eyes closed, covered from neck to ankle by dozens of iguanas. From behind the camera, someone asks, “Is it that cold, bro?”

The man replies that he was “trying to sleep,” adding that it felt like 30 degrees outside. He jokes that with all the iguanas on top of him, his own temperature feels closer to 100 degrees.

As the video continues, a few of the reptiles begin to wiggle as they warm up—tails moving, bodies shifting—before some slowly crawl off the pile.

Near the end of the clip, the man stresses the iguanas aren’t dead, but in brumation, the reptile equivalent of hibernation. According to The Weather Channel, iguanas shut down at temperatures below 40 degrees as a “defense mechanism against the cold.”

At the start of winter in November 2025, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) warned residents not to handle or assist iguanas, and regulations were in place to prohibit it. But on Jan. 30—after a prolonged cold spell affected thousands of iguanas—the FWC issued an executive order allowing people to handle and remove the reptiles from their property.

Floridians were also given the option to turn in the cold-stunned iguanas they collected to the FWC. According to NBC Miami, the agency received more than 1,000 iguanas after the executive order was announced.

The cold snap itself was intense by Florida standards. According to the National Weather Service, Tampa dipped to just under 28 degrees and Orlando fell to 24 degrees on Feb. 1. Tallahassee dropped to 18 degrees on Feb. 2—conditions that proved especially harsh for the state’s invasive iguana population.