Life in Interesting Times

In South Florida, the Burmese python hunt began in earnest in August.
Trapping efforts have been largely futile. At last count, fewer than 40 were captured.

The National Park Service, FWC and USGS folks don’t have an easy job.
Tens of thousands of the exotic invader continue to slither thrugh the Everglades. They are well-camoflauged and blend into the background.
Pretty much all of Florida makes good Burmese-python habitat, according to both the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The snakes have been creeping slowly northward.

So how long will it take for the snakes, especially the populous Burmese python, to reach Central Florida?

No one knows for sure, USGS snake-and-invasive-species expert Dr. Robert Reed told The Beacon. The South Florida Burmese python population began to establish itself in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
“So, it took close to 20 years for them to get up to northern Collier and Sarasota counties, where they’re found now,” he said.
At that rate, it would take many years for them to reach Central Florida.
Sometimes, though, an animal population can suddenly and rapidly expand its territory, Reed said. A change in the environment or a change or adaptation in the animal can trigger the explosion.
The snakes would most most likely spread up through coastal areas before they come into inland areas. They haven’t moved north on Florida’s east coast yet, just on the west coast.

Reed doesn’t expect the colder winters in Central Florida to hinder the snakes that much, though they may reproduce a little more slowly. The snakes wait out cold snaps in burrows in the soil or in the water.
It will be a matter of waiting, watching and monitoring the situation — and looking for new ways to find and remove the snakes from the wild.
Research continues. The University of Florida, the USGS, the National Park Service and others have been collaborating to find ways to understand and trap the snakes. That includes use of radio chips implanted into snakes that can lead researchers to python nests. Read more at www.edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW286

In a report released Oct. 13, available online at www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2324, Reed warned the burmese pythons, along with eight other non-native boa, anaconda and python species pose a serious risk to Florida’s native wildlife.
These snakes reproduce quickly, produce numerous offspring, travel long distances and can eat most native birds and mammals, the report stated.

Mammals and birds at the highest risk are those already in danger, Reed said in a phone interview. “It’s adding one more stress to animals at risk.”

The Burmese pythons are “a novel predation threat,” he said.

That means birds and animals are used to small-to-medium size snakes, and don’t know to be wary of large ambush predators like pythons that can attack them from grasses, water or trees.

Burmese pythons can do well in urban and suburban areas as well in the wild, posing a danger to pets and livestock. These pythons can grow up to 17 feet in length and 200 pounds.

They don’t have any natural enemies in Florida to cut their population. An alligator or vehicle may kill one occasionally, Reed said.

The larger pythons — Burmese, reticulated, and northern and southern African pythons — have been documented as attacking and killing people in the wild in their native range. The risk in Florida isn’t particularly high. It’s about the same as being attacked by an alligator.

In July, a Burmese python, an 8-foot-long family pet, strangled a 2-year-old girl in Sumter County. The baby’s parents did not have a required permit to keep the exotic animal, and did not have it properly caged, according to the FWC.
Pythons that have escaped or been turned loose by their owners currently pose the biggest risk of starting a population in the wild in Central Florida. That’s how the population got started in South Florida, Reed noted.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 pm and is filed under animals, environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.