Pregnant Lizard Goes Nesting at Miami Walmart

MIAMI, FL — If you were a pregnant spiny lizard there's really only one place in the Miami area that can meet all of your nesting needs under one roof and it isn't the Florida Everglades. It's Walmart Supercenter.

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That's where a reptilian mom-to-be turned up on Thursday. She caught a number of Walmart shoppers by surprise before a store employee contacted Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.

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Watch video of the spiny lizard at the bottom of this story.

They in turn sent in the department's Venom 1 unit, which routinely handles reptile calls in a city where alligators and 20-foot Burmese Pythons are more common than say a snow storm.

In this case the call came in around 2:30 p.m. at the Walmart located at 3200 Nw 79th St.

"When Venom 1 unit arrived they spotted a spiny lizard standing near some shopping carts," Erika Benitez of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue told Patch. "Several store patrons had spotted the lizard walking around and they became concerned."

The foot-long lizard was safely captured by Lt. Lisa Wood, who proved much braver than the typical Walmart shopper.

"It might have been a situation where she was looking for a place to lay eggs," theorized Lt. Felipe Lay of Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue. "It was probably nesting."

Lay said that the reptile was found at the front of the store where Walmart keeps its shopping carts.

The pregnant lizard was turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"It will be released," said Lay.

Watch spiny lizard below:

Photo and video courtesy of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue