Cold-Stunned Iguana Hospitalizes Bethesda Woman

A Bethesda woman suffered cuts and bruises and was briefly hospitalized after a cold-stunned iguana fell on her head and knocked her to the ground. The incident occurred just before 10pm Wednesday night and was caught on Ring Camera.

Temperatures were in the 40s when the woman approached her Woodhaven home, cold enough to send iguanas into shock and causing them to lose their grip on trees. The iguana fell from a branch over her front walk.

As temperatures dip for the first time this autumn, Montgomery County residents need to learn to dodge the invasive lizards that made it to central Maryland this year.

The situation has caused so much alarm that the Maryland Weather Service issued a warning. “When temperatures go down this low, their body literally shuts down,” meteorologist Randall Boggs said. “They get into a coma-like condition.”

Iguanas, which can grow up to 6 feet in length, invaded Florida decades ago and have been moving north ever since. Global warming kept harsh winters at bay the past few years, allowing invasive iguanas to inhabit the mid-Atlantic region starting in 2021.

With temperatures on the rise again, Boggs says it may be another few weeks before iguanas start falling regularly in Montgomery County and the DC Metro region.

“It’s just during the transition into late autumn that we see falling lizards,” Boggs said. “In winter iguanas hide underground or in a tree hole and enter a state of hibernation. In the spring they come out with their 50-60 hatchlings.”