refer to it as Tegulandia. There are even tales of a local fast food joint that became renowned for tegus that burrowed under the drive-thru box and scared the hell out of unsuspecting customers.

In their native South America, tegus have a fondness for eggs. They raid caiman nests and eat tinamou, a ground-dwelling bird. But as I’m learning today, they seem equally enticed by store-bought chicken eggs. An hour into the trip, Cooke walks down a pile of rocks holding the first trapped tegu of the day, a juvenile that’s 16 inches long, give or take. She shakes the lizard into a canvas bag, tags it with a pink piece of tape, and tosses it into the Dangerous Reptiles bin. About an hour later, the team bags thesecond tegu of the day, and then the third, which is taken on the grounds of a firing range. They secure the fourth only after Mason throws the truck in park, jumps out of the driver seat, and, like a reptile-fighting ninja, kicks the trap closed. Minutes later, they trap tegus five and six only a few hundred yards from a busy highway. With ruthless efficiency, the young women clear and re-bait the entire trap line and haul out a bin full tegus.

A biological technician at the University of Florida holds an Argentine black and white tegu that has been trapped. Tegus are omnivores, consuming a variety of plants and small animals, but are especially known for eating eggs, including those of American alligators, turtles, and ground-nesting birds.