In a stroke of luck, rangers in Florida managed to capture a colossal Burmese python just moments before it could unleash havoc on one of America’s most precious and delicate ecosystems. Upon examination, the python was found to be carrying 59 embryonic pythons within her, poised to become super-predators. Although the image captured dates back to 2009, the issue remains pressing even in 2012. The Everglades, once a pristine swamp, has now become the breeding ground for these marauding invasive species.
The slithering behemoth, a Burmese python, was cut open by a ranger in Everglades National Park, Florida, revealing its pregnant state and the potential threat it posed. These super-pythons, wreaking havoc in the Everglades, have caused a significant decline in native species, including raccoons, opossums, bobcats, and various mammals. With no natural predators, scientists fear that the pythons are disrupting the delicate environmental balance and food chain in the Everglades in ways that are difficult to predict.
Many of these pythons were originally pets that were released by their owners when they grew too large to handle. Others are believed to be descendants of domestic pythons that escaped from pet shops during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. These elite predators, resembling the one captured, continue to cause mayhem in the Everglades, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake.
Reptile Rampage: A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals a dramatic decrease in sightings of medium-sized mammals, as high as 99 percent in some cases, in areas where pythons and other large non-native constrictor snakes reside. Burmese pythons, capable of reaching lengths of 26 feet and weighing over 200 pounds, are not venomous. Instead, they kill their prey by constriction, utilizing their powerful backward-facing teeth to lock onto their victims before crushing them within their coils and swallowing them whole. After a substantial meal, their bodies adapt to accommodate the feast by enlarging their hearts, producing more digestive fluids, and rearranging their intestines. This ability to gorge themselves allows them to survive without food for months.
Florida’s warm and humid climate provides the perfect habitat for the tens of thousands of Burmese pythons, native to Southeast Asia, that have made the Everglades their home. Since 2000, the National Park Service has captured a staggering 1,825 Burmese pythons in and around Everglades National Park. Among the largest pythons caught was a 156-pound, 16.4-foot specimen captured just last month.
In 2010, Florida implemented a ban on private ownership of Burmese pythons, and earlier this month, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a federal ban on the importation of Burmese pythons and three other snake species. The measures aim to curb the proliferation of these invasive snakes and protect the delicate ecosystems of Florida’s Everglades.
