CAPE CORAL, Fla. — It’s a scorching hot afternoon in Cape Coral and Ali Mulla is driving around Southwest Florida’s largest city.

Every couple of blocks, he stops on the side of the road, slaps a University of South Florida magnet on the side of his car and walks across the grass down toward a canal.

What You Need To Know

  • University of South Florida student Ali Mulla has made it his mission to catch Nile monitor lizards

  • Mulla said that Nile monitor lizards are an invasive species that has come to Florida through the pet trade

  • He hopes his research can help us better understand them and their tendencies, and help leaders strategize how to deal with them

Before reaching the water, he arrives at a metal cage. He’s the reason the cage is there. He put it there. Inside hangs chicken that Mulla is using as bait, hoping to catch an invasive species.

On this day, he’s corralled a raccoon instead. It's not his goal. He gingerly opens the cage and sets the raccoon free.

His real intent is to catch Nile monitor lizards, an invasive species that has come to Florida through the pet trade. Mulla wants to catch a total of 12 of them, have a veterinarian input a radio tracker on the animals, then track where they like to go and the resources they use in the community.

“This is a notorious invasive species, but there has been no research on their ecology, how they react to their environment,” Mulla, a USF Masters candidate in Conservation Biology, said. “The next best thing we can do is prioritize areas where they may expand or disperse into natural areas.”

He's caught five Nile monitors so far, having started his effort in May. On the day Spectrum Bay News 9 joined him in Cape Coral, he does not add to that total.

But he did show how he’s able to find some of the Nile monitor lizards he’s already trapped and tagged. Using an antenna and a receiver, he can pinpoint a general location where the lizard might be. He demonstrates it, allowing Spectrum Bay News 9 to get close to the Nile monitor — where a rustling is heard in the woods, but it jumps into a canal before it can be spotted. 

“They’re a very defensive, very skittish animal,” Mulla said. “They’re really defensive, they hiss really loudly, they’re very strong.”

But they also don’t belong in Florida. Mulla acknowledges their presence in our state could “really throw things out of balance.” He hopes his research can help people better understand them and their tendencies, and help leaders strategize how to deal with them.

But he needs to trap seven more before the year is out. So the hunt continues.