Meet The Everglades' Newest Invasive Problem - Burmese Pythons

[hatrack]

EDIT

In the vast park, with its subtropical mystique and exotic species, the non-native Burmese Pythons have found a new home and are flourishing. But they have made themselves so unwelcome that wildlife officials are aggressively fighting back. "They're eating pretty much everything in Everglades National Park," said Superintendent Dan Kimball. "They seem to be eating machines."

Burmese Pythons are native to Southeast Asia, and are among the largest snakes in the world. They can grow longer than 20 feet. Thousands of these snakes are imported every year into the United States, and are also raised domestically to be sold as pets.

A problem is that they can grow very quickly, especially in captivity — upwards of four feet a year. "We can have a 12-foot snake in under three years, and have breeding animals in three to five years," said Todd Hardwick, the owner of Pesky Critters, a Miami animal pest-control company. Over the years, as the large constricting snakes outgrew their cages, and became more difficult to handle, many pet owners released them into the wild.

In the warm Everglades, the freed Burmese Pythons found suitable habitat, and began to breed. More than 200 of them have been found in just the last few years, many of them along the main road used by tourists and fishermen visiting the park. "I think they're going to be breeding as fast as we're capturing them," said Hardwick. Skip Snow, the park biologist who runs the program to study and eradicate the snakes, said, "We've found Burmese Pythons in more places each year that we did before. We're also finding more size classes."

EDIT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12267540/

[LiberalEsto]

1. Would any members of the Misadministration

be interested in doing a little fact-finding mission in the Everglades? :evilgrin:

[NNadir]

2. I have heard that Burmese Pythons can eat a fat pig.

This is why Jeb Bush should not go walking there without a gun.

[LiberalEsto]

3. B*sh, Cheney, Jeb, Condi...

visulaize them all as snakefood!
Cheers me right up.

[MuseRider]

4. They are very nice snakes

but do NOT belong here. I hate when this happens because a large number of these animals will be destroyed all because of idiot humans who think it would be cool to have a 20 ft. long snake. We had one at the zoo when I worked there. On nice days we would take it out for a walk. It took several of us to get it out and then back inside, they are very strong and heavy.

[blindpig]

5. Reptile dealers

are likely the direct source of this infestation. I know some of those guys and am quite famaliar with the business. Some years ago I heard a rumor that some dealer was importing gravid anacondas, holding the females until they gave birth then dumping the female in the canal. It's hard to sell an adult wild caught anaconda, they have a deserved rep for being complete assholes, by the babies are marketable. I can easily believe that happening with the pythons, holding wild caught or even domesticaly bred females(the market is saturated) until they drop eggs then cutting them loose. Bastards.