Burmese Pythons Squeeze South Florida

“If you are standing in front of a large snake right now don’t panic…” 

So says the greeting message for the Florida Keys python hotline, 888-IVE-GOT1. Over the years enough pet Burmese pythons in south Florida have been released into the wild that one National Park Service scientist has estimated now there could be as many as 30,000 of them in the Everglades National Park area. (Between 1996 and 2006 about 99,000 were imported into the United States).

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Burmese pythons can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 200 pounds. Their appetite for local wildlife is endangering protected species that are vulnerable to any predators, especially ones as capable as the huge snakes. Research by the University of Florida identified the remains of the following wild Florida animals in the digestive tracts of the invading pythons: alligator, rabbit, two types of rats, domestic cat, cotton mouse, gray squirrel, fox squirrel, raccoon, oppossum, bobcat, muskrat, rice rat, white-tailed deer, Key Largo woodrat, and six species of birds. In 2006 it was discovered by scientists that pythons are breeding in Everglades National Park. A female can lay 80 eggs at a time.

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