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Giant pythons could be headed to north FloridaYou’ve probably seen the pictures. Giant pythons capable of swallowing an alligator that are now living in the marshes and canals of south Florida. But did you know a new study finds that those
"Pythons are likely to colonize anywhere alligators live, including north Florida, Georgia and Louisiana," said Frank Mazzotti, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor, in his two-year study. The associate professor has published a new fact sheet outlining updated python statistics and methods being used to find and eliminate the snakes. Pythons colonizing in Florida are mostly Burmese pythons that were bought as pets and then turned loose in the wild. They were first discovered in the mid-1990s in the Florida Everglades. Less than ten years later, wildlife officials discovered extensive breeding colonies in the wild. Now after populating down south, the giant python is now spreading across the rest of the state. "People might argue the ultimate boundaries, but there’s no part of this state that you can point at and say that pythons couldn’t live here," Mazzotti said. "We really need to be addressing the spread of these pythons. They’re capable of surviving anywhere in Florida, they’re capable of incredible movement — and in a relatively short period." Two federal agencies, the United States Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are investigating the range of nine invasive snakes in Florida including the python, boa constrictors and anacondas, and are concerned about the danger they now pose to endangered species. Their data shows areas where the snakes could live today.
"We were surprised by the map. It was bigger than we thought it was going to be," says Gordon Rodda, zoologist and lead project researcher for the government. "They are moving northward, there's no question." From 2002-2005, 201 pythons were caught by state authorities, but in the last two years the number has more than doubled to 418. Some officials estimate the Everglades could be home to more than 30,000 of the snakes. The largest python caught so far in Florida measured 16.4 feet and weighed 154 pounds. Highly adaptable, the snakes can thrive in a variety of environments. Not only are pythons fantastic swimmers, they can cover a lot of ground, as well. Two pythons with surgically implanted radio transmitters were found to have traveled 35 miles and 43 miles. Pythons are not poisonous and hunt by constricting their prey. In Florida, they eat everything from deer, alligators, and raccoons, to ducks, ducks, egrets, herons and song birds, to the family pets. In other words, everything. They grab with their mouth to anchor the prey, then coil around the animal and crush it to death before eating it whole. Human safety is also a concern. There is no evidence that wild Burmese pythons hunt humans; however, on several occasions large captive Burmese pythons have killed their owners. Perhaps more importantly, large snakes may stretch across roads, posing a hazard to motorists. If federal officials had to worry only about Florida, it would be "decades" before the pythons move into other states, Rodda says. But people keep dumping pythons they don't want into the wild. "We just learned about some that had been released in Arkansas," Rodda says. According to Professor Mazzotti, the best strategy is likely a larger, focused effort to contain and reduce the population by tracking, capturing and euthanizing the reptiles.
Since May 2006, trackers have found seven pregnant female snakes and one nest of eggs; one recently captured python had 85 developing eggs. State rules that went into effect this year should help, including a $100 annual permit to own "reptiles of concern," and a mandatory microchip. Information for this article was provided by the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). Original publication date May, 2008. By Rebecca G. Harvey, Environmental Education Coordinator; Matthew L. Brien, Wildlife Research Assistant; Michael S. Cherkiss, Wildlife Biologist; Mike Rochford, Wildlife Research Assistant; and Frank J. Mazzotti, Associate Professor; Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Michael Dorcas, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Davidson College; Ray W. Snow, Wildlife Biologist, South Florida Natural Resources Center, Everglades National Park Mazzotti’s fact sheet, can be found at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW286 |
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