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Florida python invasion: expanded and still growin
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by tigers9 on May 18, 2008
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Hmm, could it be the number doubled because people started looking harder for the pythons?
I would like to know how he came up with the estimate of 30,000. Not all pythons are females, not all carry sperm, not all eggs will hatch, not all babies will survive…many will become food to other Glades animals…
Z
<< From 2002-2005, 201 pythons were captured or found dead in and around Everglades National Park. In 2006-2007, the number more than doubled, to 418. Everglades wildlife biologist Skip Snow has estimated the population at more than 30,000>>
http://news.ufl.edu/2008/05/15/pythons-2/
Florida python invasion: expanded and still growing, UF researcher says
Filed under Research, Environment, Florida on Thursday, May 15, 2008.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The invasion of gigantic Burmese pythons in South Florida appears to be rapidly expanding, according to a new report from a University of Florida researcher who’s been chasing the snakes since 2005.
Associate professor Frank Mazzotti of UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has published a new fact sheet outlining updated python statistics and methods being used to find and eliminate the snakes.
The new document follows the February release of a U. S. Geological Survey climate map that showed — based solely on climate, not habitat — pythons could potentially survive across the lower third of the United States.
Though Mazzotti’s findings may make some nervous, he said the information should be reassuring. Knowing the extent of a problem makes it much easier to solve, he said.
“All of this is good. We’ve defined the problem, and science is really coming to the aid of management efforts,” he said.
He stresses that humans are far more likely to be hurt by animals that don’t typically induce fear, such as hitting a deer with one’s car or being bitten by a dog, than by the nonvenomous snakes. But now, solving the problem must become a priority, Mazzotti said.
“People might argue the ultimate boundaries, but there’s no part of this state that you can point at and say that pythons couldn’t live here,” he said. “We really need to be addressing the spread of these pythons. They’re capable of surviving anywhere in Florida, they’re capable of incredible movement — and in a relatively short period.”
Pythons are likely to colonize anywhere alligators live, he said — including North Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. So far, most of the snakes have been found in Everglades National Park, but they’ve moved beyond its borders, too: as far north as Manatee County.
The Burmese python, native to Burma in Southeast Asia, is one of the world’s largest snake species. The largest found in the Everglades was 16 feet long and 152 pounds.
Mazzotti said there are a few places where eradication of the snakes might be possible, such as the Florida Keys.
“We need to do something so that five years from now, we’re not looking at an exponentially bigger population in those areas because we didn’t go in and get the first ones before they started breeding,” he said.
In most places, he said, the best strategy is likely a larger, focused effort to contain and reduce the population by tracking, capturing and euthanizing the reptiles.
“As soon as you know they’re breeding, eradication gets to be out of the question,” he said. “Females may store sperm, so they can produce fertile clutches for years. And a 100-something pound snake can easily be producing 60, 80 eggs a year.”
State rules that went into effect this year should help, including a $100 annual permit to own “reptiles of concern,” and a mandatory microchip, he said. But it’s imperative that more be done to educate people about the problem of turning loose non-native species, he said.
Other highlights from Mazzotti’s fact sheet, which can be found at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW286:
• From 2002-2005, 201 pythons were captured or found dead in and around Everglades National Park. In 2006-2007, the number more than doubled, to 418. Everglades wildlife biologist Skip Snow has estimated the population at more than 30,000.
• Since May 2006, trackers have found seven pregnant female snakes and one nest of eggs; one recently captured python had 85 developing eggs.
• Autopsied pythons found in Key Largo contained the remains of the endangered Key Largo woodrat. Other species on the pythons’ prey menu include rabbit, gray squirrel, fox squirrel, domestic cats, raccoons, bobcats, white-tailed deer, limpkin, white ibis and the American alligator.
• Not only are pythons fantastic swimmers, they can cover a lot of ground, as well. Two pythons with surgically implanted radio transmitters were found to have traveled 35 miles and 43 miles. Trackers stepped in and caught the male, concerned that it was too close to homes near a Miccosukee Indian Reservation.
-30-
Credits
Writer
Mickie Anderson, mickiea@ufl.edu, 352-392-0400
Source
Frank Mazzotti, fjma@ufl.edu, 954-577-6338
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RE: Florida python invasion: expanded and still gr
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by Cro on May 18, 2008
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Yep, this Skippy fellow is sure coming up with some suspect "science." I would love to see the man-hour charts of the time it took for them to find those 400 snakes compared with the time it took them to find the 200.
Also, I would like to see just how he came up with 30,000 pythons, based on finding 400 over a two year period ????? Just what python breeding / reproduction algorithm did you use, Skippy ??????
By their own folks admission in previous posts, the pythons are hard to find. You would think if there were 30,000 of them, it would be fairly easy ??????
Also, where are all of the albino burmese pythons, ball pythons, african rock pythons, reticulated pythons, Boa Constrictors, etc in the everglades ?????
I find it very difficult to believe if folks were releasing pets in the glades, that they would all be burmese pythons. (I know they found one reticulated python, but that is all.) I also find it very difficult to believe that folks would drive 50 miles out to the glades to release the pet python, when they could give it to a pet shop just up the road ?????
Perhaps at one time some reptile breeder dumped 50 or 100 unwanted baby Burmese pythons into the glades, and some of them survived. And perhaps those snakes created the population that is there now. That is possible. However, there is no way there are 30,000 of them running around there now.
With modern mDNA testing, it should be fairly easy to trace the pythons back to a source and see just how closely related they all are. I am willing to be that they will all be related quite closely. If they were releases from pets, they would have came from all over Burma snd Thailand, and the mDNA would show a much more distant relationship between them ?????? Anyone want to try this and see ?????? I think a "common" ancester will be found, an "Adam or Eve" if you will.
This whole thing is so far fetched it is getting rediculous. Trying to get more Federal Funding down there Skippy ? Dreaming up a problem could sure do it.
Kind of nifty how you took a unfinished USGS study and used it to support your snake migration ideas. Also kind of nifty that you have not published your ideas about there being 30,000 Burmese pythons in the glades.
Why don't you submit your research to say Herp Review, or Nature, and see if it will stand peer review ?????
The politicians are just dumb enough to believe your inaccurate "science."
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Florida python invasion: expanded and still gr
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by Aries54 on May 19, 2008
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Yea. This is getting crazy! I'm so sick and tired of hearing these lies!
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RE: Florida python invasion: expanded and still gr
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by Cro on May 20, 2008
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Also, whats up with this outspoken Frank Mazzotti fellow ?
He is an Associate professor at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
What does Food and Agriculture have to do with Burmese Pythons ?????????
Perhaps he is looking for Federal / State Funding also ???
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Florida python invasion: expanded and still gr
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by BigBend66 on May 21, 2008
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Crazy and seems inconseivable but every time we go down to the Everglades we find aleast 5 burms , some DOR and AOR but they are even bigger in numbers then the Gov't thinks. We find them on 41 all the way to Fort meyers....
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