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U.S.Burmese python populations are increasing in mum Florida, infiltrating Everglades National Park, making eradication of this invasive species nearly impossible.
Biologists have captured a female python in southwestern Florida after tracking down a male. image: southwestern florida sanctuary
Burmese pythons in southern Florida are one of the most difficult management problems associated with invasive species, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), fox news Reported on March 20. Although the python was discovered in the Everglades in 1979, it wasn’t until the late 90s and early 2000s that state authorities recognized it as an invasive species in the national park after a viable population was found. The problem spread into Broward and Palm Beach counties and northward into areas like Lake Okeechobee and Fort Myers. It all started when a few pythons were released into the wild by the imported pet trade.
A paper published earlier this year that looked at the findings of more than 250 research projects and ways to fend off invasive pythons confirmed how little scientists know about how often pythons reproduce in new environments, how long they live, and how large python populations are? Researchers believe their survival rate is exceptional because adult Burmese pythons in southern Florida are too large for most predators to hunt.
The largest python ever recorded in Florida was nearly 5.8 meters long, weighed 97 kilograms and carried 122 eggs. The pythons here usually lay an average of 11 – 84 eggs, but larger individuals can lay 79 – 87 eggs. Researchers in Florida have begun wearing GPS trackers on small mammals such as raccoons and possums to track the location and movements of pythons.
After five months of research, they achieved a breakthrough when the possum’s collar stopped moving and then moved again hours later. The lack of movement triggered the death signal, but when the collar was moved back, the team realized the critter had been eaten by the python. It took researchers about a month to find the necklace, which was made by boa constrictors crawling in and out of Key Largo’s cave maze. They discovered it was a 3.7m long, 30kg female boa constrictor full of follicles.
Florida also hosts an annual python extermination event called the Florida Python Challenge every October. Last year, hunters competed and killed 231 animals. But this approach has had little effect on the thriving population of Burmese pythons in the southern part of the state.
According to the researchers, although various methods are used to catch pythons, many tools are not popular, mainly because pythons are difficult to detect. They concluded that eradicating pythons in South Florida is nearly impossible. Suppressing python populations, even on a local scale, will require collaboration among researchers, land managers, budgets, communities, and tool applications.
they are kang (Theo fox news)
