HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — A South Florida iguana expert collected immobile reptiles by the handful Sunday morning as a cold snap moved into the area.

The cold-blooded creatures fall from trees when temperatures get too low. On Sunday, across South Florida, thermometers reached the mid-30s.

Jessica Kilgore, with Iguana Solutions, said she’s collected hundreds of pounds worth of the lizards.

“The last time it froze like this, I found the majority of my frozen iguanas out by the beach,“ she told Local 10 News in Hollywood. ”I think that air coming off of the cold water is even colder for them, and the wind is stronger over there, so it knocks them out the trees.

“We’re expecting to find many more iguanas this morning out there, probably until about 11 a.m., when it starts to get warm enough for them to wake up and climb back up the trees.”

She explained that iguanas are an invasive species and should be humanely disposed of to protect the environment.

“We are not allowed to relocate these animals. Some people try to heat them up and let them go,” Kilgore said. “If you do that on your own property, that’s your own choice.”

She said the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has set up drop-off points “where they will humanely put iguanas down and make sure that they don’t suffer.”

“But we also get them out of our environment and save South Florida,” Kilgore said.

WATCH: State opens iguana drop-off site

Local 10 News visited one of those collection sites, at 10052 NW 52nd St. in Sunrise, on Sunday morning.

People were bringing in plenty of cold-stunned iguanas.

“We were kind of surprised,” one man said. Got out there, found them. Like, we’ve seen them in the summer, and they are fast and then you see them right now and they just don’t move. They’re just so slow."

The reptiles will either be humanely euthanized or transferred to licensed permit holders for legal sale outside the state.

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