Employing targeted outreach to improve community involvement in detecting invasive Nile monitors (Varanus niloticus) in Florida

We successfully employed targeted outreach to communities in Palm Beach County, Florida, to enhance detection of invasive reptiles. We defined targeted outreach as delivering a specific message to a specific audience, at a specific location, to obtain a specific result. These efforts improved our ability to solicit community involvement focused on target species of interest in locations at risk of potential establishment of incipient populations. From 2018 through 2020, we reached over 112,000 individuals who reported over 50 nonnative lizard sightings to EDDMapS, a web-based mapping system for documenting invasive species, and the State-managed IVE-GOT1 reporting hotline. We considered reports to be directly attributed to our outreach efforts when the reporter indicated our outreach method as the source from which they obtained information on reporting large invasive lizards. We found print media elicited the most reports, while social media reached the largest audience both in direct shares and spillover to additional communities outside our target area. We concluded that to help improve invasive species management programs, three tactics could be employed: (1) using multiple forms of media, (2) additional educational support to improve the accuracy of public reports, and (3) rapid, dedicated capability to respond to reported sightings.