Food, Sex, Sleep: Mantra of Burmese Pythons proliferation in Florida

A large number of Floridians are currently bothered by the overwhelming invasion of Burmese pythons in the state and want to get rid of the large snake. These snakes are causing serious destruction of wildlife in the Everglades. For those who don’t know: Everglades is the name given to a natural region in southern Florida that consists of tropical wetlands.

Kristen Hart, a research ecologist representing the US Geological Survey, said that these snakes are invading into Florida for food and sex, two basic needs of most animals. Hart is the leader of a research team that carried out a study for finding out why these pythons have invaded the Everglades.

The said study revealed that Burmese pythons are eating up the wildlife of Everglades and then getting engaged in mating to give birth to more snakes of their kind. According to the researchers, right now, these snakes are the main predators inhabiting this Floridian national park.

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Individuals looking to hunt these pythons can target the mating season. Hart said that radio tracking can be useful in finding breeding pythons in an extremely focused location during their breeding season.

It’s true that a large share of the residents of Florida badly wants the pythons to be removed from the Everglades. However, the task is pretty tough as these 19 ft. snakes are extremely difficult to find.

Hart informed that the skin color of these reptiles match that of leaves, palm trees, detritus, and mud, which makes locating them extremely tough. Finding these snakes becomes even tougher due to their quiet nature.

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These pythons are easily crossing the main roads of Everglades, but it’s almost impossible to see them covering the distance. Hart informed that although they cannot see the snakes, they have knowledge of their existence. They are making this possible by tracking the reptiles’ location.

During this study, researchers came to know that many of these pythons reside in tree islands. The study also informs us that to date no one has carried out any organized study on pythons inhabiting the tree islands. However, now it’s time that resource managers consider carrying out thorough python search operations in this region as radio-tagged pythons are found to be spending a significant amount of time in these areas.