Friday, February 17, 2012

Pythons wiping out native species in Florida

I assume this is happening everywhere else where idiots, who don't do research as to what size their snake will reach and what level of effort they actually require, reside. Here's an idea, how about not releasing non-native species into foreign (for them) environments?

From the Washington Post:
But in the southernmost part of the Florida Everglades, things have taken a really wild turn. Pythons and anacondas are eating everything. The most common animals in Everglades National Park — rabbits, raccoons, opossums and bobcats — are almost gone, according to a study released Monday.


“There aren’t many native mammals that pythons can’t choke down,” said Robert N. Reed, a research wildlife biologist at the U.S. Geologial Survey’s Fort Collins Science Center and a co-author of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Officials can’t stop invasive pythons and anacondas from marauding in the Everglades, Reed said; they can only hope to contain them. “We’re trying to prevent spread to the Florida Keys and elsewhere north.” The snakes were released by pet owners into the Everglades, where they started to breed. A female python can lay 100 eggs, though 54 is considered the norm. The study was described as the first to show pythons are causing the decline of native mammals in the Everglades.

"I don't belong here"


Source -> Washington Post photo gallery (click here for full link)
Sources -> http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/story/2012-01-04/invasive-giant-pythons-florida/52383352/1 & http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/in-florida-everglades-pythons-and-anacondas-dominate-food-chain/2012/01/30/gIQAULTVdQ_story.html

Non-native species related link: http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/04/sharks-being-taught-to-eat-non-native.html

Counterpoint on a specific example: http://www.dannyfinnegan.com/2011/06/non-native-species-beneficial.html

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