Herps in the news
Since the mid 1990's, Pythons have been introduced to the Florida Everglades, where they are not naturally found, and are having a field day in the warm moist climate. Not to mention they are most certainly enjoying the abundance of local species found there. Pythons were brought to the United States in the pet trade and were either released or escaped into the wild. Since, they are taking over the Everglades. Pythons grow rapidly in size, are habitat generalists so they can live in many different habitats, they are arboreal in their youth which puts birds in danger, they are tolerant to urbanization, they mature and reproduce many offspring and they serve as potential hosts to parasite and disease. WOW! Taking all of these factors into consideration it is not hard to see how they are thriving in Florida. They are even able to dominate the alligators found in the Everglade wetlands, which are at the top of the food chain in this ecosystem. Its almost like ALIENS ATTACK! This is a perfect example of invasive species at it's finest. Pythons are emerging as the alpha predator. The ironic thing is, in their native countries, Pythons are going extinct due to being hunted for their meat and their skins.
At this point there are enough pythons to breed, and they are definitely reproducing, making their numbers astronomical (considering they really have no predators in the Everglades). FORT scientists (Fort Collins Science Center) are evaluating control methods. Their first plan of attack is to catch the foreign snakes using traps. They are using all kinds of traps to see which are most effective. Ecological studies are also being done to understand their biological requirements and behaviors in their new environments. With these results they hope to come up with new methods of management. One proposed idea is to make a giant area that is really warm in hopes to attract pregnant females to come lay her eggs here. May be a bit far fetched but at this point I think locals are willing to try anything. If the snakes continue to become a bigger problem, people may resort to killing them and thats just not fair. Maybe there is a way that they can make the males non-fertile so that they cannot produce sperm and therefore cannot reproduce. I read somewhere that they naturally have issues surviving in the wild, so if thats the case and we can control their reproduction, maybe after some time the population will dwindle down to lower numbers and survival of the fittest will come into play.
Autumn Anthony
3 comments:
It's so unfortunate that these animals were probably released by pet owners who thought they were doing the best thing for their pets when they could no longer care for them. Better education of everyone involved in the exotic pet trade, from customers to pet stores to breeders, has to be part of the solution.
Growing up in Miami as a child it was always interesting to go to the everglades and see what kinds of exotic animals we would see! In our own backyards, we had huge populations of iguanas. Do you know if they are a released invasive species, or naturally occurring in South Florida? I'll never forget being there last winter after an unusual freeze and many of the iguanas were laying dead in the streets, being collected by migrant workers for what I can only assume was lunch...as the day warmed up, so did the iguanas!!!
Iguanas are not native to Florida. The populations in Florida are feral, consisting of released pets and their offspring.
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