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Large lizard caught munching on bird

A freaky find was captured in Windward Oahu Wednesday.

Nick and Ryan Lundquist were working a roofing job in Kailua when something caught their attention.

A giant green lizard, difficult to see among the matching greenery, had a dead bird in its mouth.

“(The bird) looked kind of mangled or whatnot. It look kind of weird, and then the next thing I know, it turns to the left, and it looks, just a big old lizard eating it, so I yell to my brother, you’ve got to get up here,” said Ryan Lundquist.

The brothers had a feeling something was unusual about this lizard, so they captured it.

“As soon as we cut the branch, that thing jumps onto (my brother’s) hand, and he’s like, ‘Where is it?’ and I’m like, ‘It’s on your hand,’” said Nick Lundquist. “It jumps onto the roof and he straight grabs it and it just goes, it starts biting him (on his glove). … He picks it up, throws it in the bucket, and I put the mesh on top, and it’s going crazy in the bucket.”

We contacted the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, and officials identified the lizard as a Cuban Knight anole.

They say there’s been a known population of the lizard for decades in Windward Oahu, between Lanikai and Kahaluu, however it is still an invasive and illegal species. The lizard is a threat to native birds and eggs, and likes to climb trees.

As the brothers learned, it likes to bite. It also carries salmonella.

“What do we do with it? We call the humane society, DLNR, nobody’s answering, nothing, so Channel 2 News, straight there, boom. We sent it to them and like two seconds, we got a reply,” said Ryan Lundquist.

The Department of Agriculture has a hotline you can call if you find what you think is an illegal animal: 643-PEST (7378).

However, officials tell us since budget cuts in 2009, the hotline is not manned outside of business hours.

Because the lizard is contained, officials asked the men to hold on to it until someone can collect it in the morning.

Department officials say they receive roughly four calls a year for Cuban Knight anoles.

Because they’re usually high up in trees, they’re not typically detected.