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Pythons Slither Amok in the Everglades
allen griggs
Member Posts: 35,292 ✭✭✭✭
Pythons Blamed For Everglade's Disappearing Animals
by CHRISTOPHER JOYCE
Morning Edition
January 31, 2012
The Florida Everglades is infested with Burmese pythons. To keep them from spreading, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making it illegal to import the pythons into the country, or transport them across state lines. Scientists have discovered the pythons are doing more damage than ever imagined.
Joseph Wasilewski, a wildlife biologist, captures a wild python on the side of the Tamiami Trail road that cuts through the Florida Everglades on Sept. 16, 2009.
Scientists are reporting that aliens are wiping out the animals in Florida's Everglades.
The aliens are Burmese pythons from Asia. They've been slithering around south Florida for decades. But scientists now say the constrictors are so bad, they're eating their way through the swamps. And the federal government has decided to take action to prevent their spread.
One scientist who has been trying to find out just how bad the invasion has become is Michael Dorcas. He's been catching snakes since he was a child in Texas. But he says a 15-foot Burmese python is a handful ... or two.
"You typically try to grab them behind the head," he says, and "get somebody else to grab the back end of them. But often they still defecate all over you, even if they can't bite you, so it's always an unpleasant thing when you catch a wild python."
Dorcas is now a biologist at Davidson College in North Carolina. For the past eight years, besides catching pythons, he has been driving through the Everglades counting animals - specifically, midsize mammals.
Dorcas wanted to know how big a bite the pythons are taking out of the mammal population. When he compared the number of mammals now with the 1990s, when pythons were less common, he was shocked. "Once we calculated the percentages, we had no idea they were going to be this dramatic."
How dramatic? "A 99.3 percent decrease in raccoon observations," he reports. "Decreases of 98.9 percent in possums, 94 percent white-tailed deer, 87.5 percent in bobcats."
Nearly all the raccoons, possums, deer and bobcats gone.
Now, counting animals by sight from a car isn't foolproof, but it is an accepted practice in wildlife research.
Dorcas reports his findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He says it's the first study to actually quantify the effect of the pythons' appetite in the Everglades.
A Python Invasion
He blames pythons because in areas known to be thickest with the snake, the mammals are scarcer. Where there are fewer pythons, there are more mammals. And there's no evidence that a disease is to blame, either. Furthermore, mammals and birds (the latter are also common snacks for pythons, as necropsies have revealed) often gather near water, where pythons like to feed. And Dorcas points out that snakes big enough to eat a good-sized raccoon haven't lived in Florida for millions of years. So "local" animals are "naive."
The onset of the python invasion is often blamed on snake owners who release their pets when they get too big for comfort.
Lawyer Marshall Meyers represents the pet industry and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council. He says maybe some pet owners do that, but he also cites a report that a hurricane overwhelmed a snake breeding site in Florida that could have spread the snakes. And while pythons are no doubt eating mammals, it's more complicated than that.
"I think it's habitat loss," Meyers says, and the fact that there's less fresh water in the Everglades now, which could reduce wildlife numbers.
But he acknowledges that the python invaders and other exotic animals that escape or are released by owners give the pet trade a bad name.
"They're species that are not in this country, that we do not want in this country, because if they came in through pet trade or through the zoos, they can cause a lot of environmental harm, and that's just a * eye," he says.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been watching the python explosion and is taking action. On Jan. 17, the agency made it illegal to import Burmese pythons or transport them across state lines. That includes three other constrictor species from Africa and South America: the yellow anaconda and the northern and southern African pythons.
Biologist Susan Jewell, with the service, studies injurious species that invade the U.S. - things like zebra mussels and poisonous lionfish. She says it's possible Florida's pythons could spread if they learn how to survive in colder weather. "I think that it's a good heads-up for everybody," Jewell says. "This can happen anywhere - and most likely will if these snakes get established."
Jewell says invasive species sometimes thrive in new places where they don't have natural enemies. "It just shows what we don't know about species when they get taken out of their native range and taken to a new area," she says.
Jewell says the import ban won't help the Everglades - it's too late there. It's meant to keep pythons and other constrictors from spreading. The Fish and Wildlife Service's research suggests that they could live almost anywhere in the Southern U.S.
The ban allows people who now own these snakes to keep them, and you can still buy and sell them within a state or export them overseas. Jewell emphasizes that the new rule doesn't mean anyone has to give up his snake.
by CHRISTOPHER JOYCE
Morning Edition
January 31, 2012
The Florida Everglades is infested with Burmese pythons. To keep them from spreading, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making it illegal to import the pythons into the country, or transport them across state lines. Scientists have discovered the pythons are doing more damage than ever imagined.
Joseph Wasilewski, a wildlife biologist, captures a wild python on the side of the Tamiami Trail road that cuts through the Florida Everglades on Sept. 16, 2009.
Scientists are reporting that aliens are wiping out the animals in Florida's Everglades.
The aliens are Burmese pythons from Asia. They've been slithering around south Florida for decades. But scientists now say the constrictors are so bad, they're eating their way through the swamps. And the federal government has decided to take action to prevent their spread.
One scientist who has been trying to find out just how bad the invasion has become is Michael Dorcas. He's been catching snakes since he was a child in Texas. But he says a 15-foot Burmese python is a handful ... or two.
"You typically try to grab them behind the head," he says, and "get somebody else to grab the back end of them. But often they still defecate all over you, even if they can't bite you, so it's always an unpleasant thing when you catch a wild python."
Dorcas is now a biologist at Davidson College in North Carolina. For the past eight years, besides catching pythons, he has been driving through the Everglades counting animals - specifically, midsize mammals.
Dorcas wanted to know how big a bite the pythons are taking out of the mammal population. When he compared the number of mammals now with the 1990s, when pythons were less common, he was shocked. "Once we calculated the percentages, we had no idea they were going to be this dramatic."
How dramatic? "A 99.3 percent decrease in raccoon observations," he reports. "Decreases of 98.9 percent in possums, 94 percent white-tailed deer, 87.5 percent in bobcats."
Nearly all the raccoons, possums, deer and bobcats gone.
Now, counting animals by sight from a car isn't foolproof, but it is an accepted practice in wildlife research.
Dorcas reports his findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He says it's the first study to actually quantify the effect of the pythons' appetite in the Everglades.
A Python Invasion
He blames pythons because in areas known to be thickest with the snake, the mammals are scarcer. Where there are fewer pythons, there are more mammals. And there's no evidence that a disease is to blame, either. Furthermore, mammals and birds (the latter are also common snacks for pythons, as necropsies have revealed) often gather near water, where pythons like to feed. And Dorcas points out that snakes big enough to eat a good-sized raccoon haven't lived in Florida for millions of years. So "local" animals are "naive."
The onset of the python invasion is often blamed on snake owners who release their pets when they get too big for comfort.
Lawyer Marshall Meyers represents the pet industry and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council. He says maybe some pet owners do that, but he also cites a report that a hurricane overwhelmed a snake breeding site in Florida that could have spread the snakes. And while pythons are no doubt eating mammals, it's more complicated than that.
"I think it's habitat loss," Meyers says, and the fact that there's less fresh water in the Everglades now, which could reduce wildlife numbers.
But he acknowledges that the python invaders and other exotic animals that escape or are released by owners give the pet trade a bad name.
"They're species that are not in this country, that we do not want in this country, because if they came in through pet trade or through the zoos, they can cause a lot of environmental harm, and that's just a * eye," he says.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been watching the python explosion and is taking action. On Jan. 17, the agency made it illegal to import Burmese pythons or transport them across state lines. That includes three other constrictor species from Africa and South America: the yellow anaconda and the northern and southern African pythons.
Biologist Susan Jewell, with the service, studies injurious species that invade the U.S. - things like zebra mussels and poisonous lionfish. She says it's possible Florida's pythons could spread if they learn how to survive in colder weather. "I think that it's a good heads-up for everybody," Jewell says. "This can happen anywhere - and most likely will if these snakes get established."
Jewell says invasive species sometimes thrive in new places where they don't have natural enemies. "It just shows what we don't know about species when they get taken out of their native range and taken to a new area," she says.
Jewell says the import ban won't help the Everglades - it's too late there. It's meant to keep pythons and other constrictors from spreading. The Fish and Wildlife Service's research suggests that they could live almost anywhere in the Southern U.S.
The ban allows people who now own these snakes to keep them, and you can still buy and sell them within a state or export them overseas. Jewell emphasizes that the new rule doesn't mean anyone has to give up his snake.
Comments
People had been reporting seeing a huge snake. We thought they were exaggerating until we actually met up with it. It was sent to a home for wayward snakes.
.........or transport them across state lines.
Have to protect states like Maine and Alaska from wild populations of Burmese pythons.
Neal
FWS should ban the importation of ALL snakes, but the Reptile Lobby apparently has too much juice in Washington.
Neal
? Why, why target the importation of snakes, when we have introduced birds across the country and there are hundreds of thousands of exotic mammals kept as pets? Why not limit the possession of large pythons to states where they cannot survive winters?
out of the barn!
But, when Mrs. Deer puts the fawn to bed under a bush for 3 or 4 hours while she goes off to browse, I bet the python would make a quick snack of that fawn.
On the other hand you have lots of these huge snakes cruising the Everglades, they have to eat something, so I don't doubt that they are making a big dent in the raccoon and possum populations.
You don't suppose that Woodshed87 could devise a python call do you? Maybe python hunting could get big like turkey hunting or maybe Florida could start paying a bounty. In either case Woody could be a busy man![:D]
One could have a lot of fun with an air boat and a shotgun or two.
+1
They REALLY need to do this down there.
On the other hand I think the largest part of the wild life is gone due to urban sprawl.
I left there in 1991, and can't even imagine what it's like by now.[xx(]
quote:Originally posted by Beeramid
One could have a lot of fun with an air boat and a shotgun or two.
+1
They REALLY need to do this down there.
On the other hand I think the largest part of the wild life is gone due to urban sprawl.
I left there in 1991, and can't even imagine what it's like by now.[xx(]
[xx(] Is exactly right...[xx(]
It is hard for me to imagine a python catching an adult deer.
But how did he catch it?
Did you see that .303 Enfield hole just behind the shoulder?
just kidding
quote:Originally posted by nmyers
FWS should ban the importation of ALL snakes, but the Reptile Lobby apparently has too much juice in Washington.
Neal
? Why, why target the importation of snakes, when we have introduced birds across the country and there are hundreds of thousands of exotic mammals kept as pets? Why not limit the possession of large pythons to states where they cannot survive winters?
You're giving the Government way too much credit for having a thought proccess.
He Dog--Will they little Affikans too [?] [:0]
Your question is somewhat odius. I know of a single report of a giant python actually eating a human, and that was a reticulated python. There are several reports of pythons killing and unsuccessfully attempting to swallow a human, including at least one published account from Africa (involving a different species of python). I think you will have to find yourself a different vechicle to accomplish your racist program.
One could have a lot of fun with an air boat and a shotgun or two.
+1 they could sell hunts
I'm sure that some Florida good 'ol boys would make a living by bringing in Pythons, dead or alive.
You couldn't eliminate the beasts but you could reduce the numbers.
It would seem the larger and more dramatic impact, would be to eliminate them anywhere and everywhere (including those that are "pets" and those in "wild life zoos" and such. [V] [:(] [:(!]
I do find it kind of funny. The government will focus and put more effort and money into getting rid of Pythons before they will Illegal Aliens.
Or maybe convince the Chinese Python testicles work better than Rhino horn and taste better than Shark fins,.
no kidding ??
i too agree the state of Floriduh should offer a bounty on them, say about $5.00 a foot.
i once upon a time was a bounty hunter, the state of Ohio offered a $5.00 bounty on Foxes, just needed the ears if i recall correctly.
quote: it's always an unpleasant thing when you catch a wild python.
no kidding ??
i too agree the state of Floriduh should offer a bounty on them, say about $5.00 a foot.
i once upon a time was a bounty hunter, the state of Ohio offered a $5.00 bounty on Foxes, just needed the ears if i recall correctly.
my thoughts exactly..... sell them to boot makers....
The only solution is to release African gorillas with flamethrowers and time released quantities of LSD placed under their skin into the everglades before it's too late.
already tried that in Atlanta and look where that went.
FWS should ban the importation of ALL snakes, but the Reptile Lobby apparently has too much juice in Washington.
Neal
ATF should ban the importation of ALL guns, but the gun lobby apparently has too much juice in Washington.