MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Nile monitors are spreading across South Florida.

They are olive-green or black, with yellow striping on their head and jaw and can grow to be seven feet long and weigh 20 pounds.

They also have razor sharp claws, a long split tongue and a lengthy muscular tail.

Chances are, you have never seen one in real life.

Snake hunter Mike Kimmel, known as the ‘Python Cowboy’ has now added Nile monsters to his hunting list.

“We’ve got a lot we’re up against, between the pythons, iguanas, Nile monitors, invasive fish, invasive plants,” Kimmel said.

He calls the elusive Nile monitors contortionists that can whip and spin and even bite to avoid human hands.

“Using traps and catching them with the dogs, I’ve interacted with them alive before and they are…it’s like catching a tornado,” said Kimmel. “Swim, burrow, they climb trees, they are like modern day velociraptors.”

Unlike herbivore iguanas, the Nile monitors are carnivores and they feast on our native wildlife.

“What makes me the most nervous is how we have multiple separate populations and they’re growing,” said Kimmel.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the relatively new invasive species is hard to spot anywhere and it’s even harder to capture, which is why we aren’t sure how many there are in South Florida.

FWC said they are monitoring the local populations of the breeding Nile monitors in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Lee counties.

Reported sightings are in the thousands, but Kimmel has only seen five and caught three since 2020.

“Are you shocked at how fast they are? Absolutely! And just how spooky they are, I mean they can’t have a lot of negative interactions with humans but they know, they’re just pew gone.”

Much like South Florida’s other invasive species, researchers believe intentional and unintentional releases from animals in captivity were introduced as early as 1981.

Forty years later in 2021, Nile monitors were added to Florida’s prohibited species list.

“It got a little big, it got a little expensive to feed, it got a little too much to handle, and they decided to release it, thought they were giving it a better life,” said Kimmel. “These animals are also escape artists.”

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