Watch feisty creature tussle with Arizona crews on freeway. ‘Not your average commuter’
_fitted.png "Workers had to pull a creature from a storm drain and get it into a container along an Arizona freeway.")
A large lizard was spotted roaming along an Arizona freeway, giving drivers quite a sight.
Then reptile rescuers were tasked with wrangling the feisty creature, and it didn’t look easy, a video shows.
The Nile monitor was reported to officials at about 6:20 a.m. July 10 on the Loop 101 in North Phoenix, the Arizona Department of Transportation said in an email to McClatchy News.
The reptile was “not your average commuter!” the Arizona Department of Public Safety posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Troopers and transportation workers watched the reptile until workers with the Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary showed up.
By the time rescuers got to the scene, the reptile had found a hiding spot in a storm drain, troopers said.
One of the workers pulls the lizard out of the drain by its tail, a video shows. And a tussle with the creature ensues.
The monitor begins to thrash around as the worker tries to lower it into a plastic container.
But they couldn’t get the reptile in the bin. At one point, the video shows it snapping its mouth toward one of the workers who then drops it on the road.
The worker is then seen dropping to his knees as he wrangles the lizard and puts it into the bin with help from the second person.
It was later returned to its owner, transportation officials said.
The Nile monitor is native to sub-Saharan Africa, and it can grow more than 5 feet long, according to the Everglades Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area.
These reptiles first appeared in Florida because they were released or escaped. However, they are considered an invasive species, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.
