Do iguanas deserve their own zoo? Florida farmer wants to build world’s largest collection

You see an iguana in your yard and you recoil, then shrug. Just another day in Florida.

Maybe when it’s really cold you start to hear the National Weather Service in Miami sending out alerts about “frozen iguana” weather.

But Florida farmer Ty Park sees opportunity and beauty in critters like these. He wants to celebrate and help in preservation efforts. Iguanas are not just the large invasive green iguanas that mess with our landscaping in South Florida.

“Green iguanas are only one species and Iguanaland will highlight other species people have never seen before — along with other reptiles,” Park said.

So, perhaps by this summer or early fall, Park plans to open Iguanaland in Punta Gorda in Southwest Florida’s Charlotte County.

“My father, who was a professor at the University of Illinois, brought us over here in 1967. I was 13 years old. I’ve had reptiles all my life since I was 6 when my father gave me a turtle,” Park, a South Korea native, said.

His goal is to build — by species count — the largest reptile zoo in the world, Park said. Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota, holds the Guinness World Records title with more than 225 different species, WINK News reported.

“Iguanaland has three goals: to educate and entertain the general public about the diversity and importance of reptiles and amphibians — especially our youth,” he said.

He also wants to make his collection available for research and testing. “We have hosted many researchers and interns here in the past and will continue to do so. We will also host classes.”

Park also aims to raise about $250,000 a year to help fund global research and conservation efforts.

“In the past, we hosted two Iguanafests and raised $120,000-plus with just those two events,” Park said. “We have raised and given away almost $600,000 in the past 14 years. I have been here as a private farm. Now, I want to open this farm to the public to share my passion.”

Park, whose actress daughter Victoria Park plays Kamilla Hwang on The CW’s “The Flash,” estimates about $4 million to $5 million will be spent on converting the farm to the Iguanaland zoo by the time it opens.

Along with the 45 different species of iguanas — many of them endangered, Park said — Iguanaland is designed to host snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises, frogs and insects. “We hope to start with at least 250 species of reptiles and expand as we grow.”

The zoo, when completed, will have food spots, rest areas, a playground, a Koi pond and a turtle feeding pond, Park said.

The zoo will be divided into a public area and a rare animals breeding center that will be for guided tours for an extra fee. “Proceeds from that,” he said, “will go to conservation of endangered iguanas.”