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In Florida the pythons do not have any natural predators causing their population to grow explosively. As their population increases in Florida the pythons are leaving a nasty effect on the population on native animals in Florida. Studies shown over 25 different bird species native to Florida in the stomachs of the pythons.

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The Smithsonian's noted bird sleuth, Carla Dove, eyes smelly globs to identify victims in Florida

Carla Dove, head of the National Museum of Natural History's Feather Identification Lab, is working on a mystery. Surrounded by racks of embalmed birds in jars, she digs through the contents of a red cooler, pushing aside paper and ice packs and finally opening a plastic garbage bag. Inside are ten samples of stomach contents from Burmese pythons captured in the Florida Everglades.

The majority of Dove's work involves identifying birds hit by planes, a long-standing problem for aviation. "I mean, Wilbur Wright had a bird strike," Dove says. Using DNA analysis and feather identification, she helps airports figure out which species to deter. Dove identified Canada geese as the cause of the emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in 2009.

But a few years ago, Dove received a call from Skip Snow, a wildlife biologist at Everglades National Park, with a different kind of bird identification assignment. "Carla, we've got a problem down here and we need your help," Dove recalls him saying. Burmese pythons, an invasive species, were preying on wildlife in the park at an alarming rate.

"I realized right away that this was an important study," Dove says. The snakes, first reported in the park in 1979, are likely descended from released or escaped exotic pets. Their current population is in the thousands, and they are proliferating rapidly. "The first way to prove the danger they're causing to the environment is to figure out what they're eating and how much of it they're eating," Dove says. So Snow began sending Dove stomach samples from captured pythons.

Identifying any birds in such samples is messy, time-consuming work-a task Dove embraces with gusto. "My job is not so glamorous," she says, picking up a brown glob in a plastic sandwich bag. She washes it in warm water, then dries it with compressed air: "Feathers are made of keratin, like your hair, so they are very durable and easy to clean and dry." She examines them under a microscope, looking for fine variations in color, size or microstructure that tell her which taxonomic group a given bird belongs to.

Dove then takes the sample into the museum's collection of 620,000 specimens from more than 8,000 species of birds and looks for a match; it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. "This is the way we've been doing it for 50 years," she says. "We have DNA now, but DNA is not going to help us in this case"-the python's digestive system has destroyed or contaminated the genetic material-"so you really have to rely on those basic skills of identifying things based on your experience and your knowledge."

In the past year, Dove has identified 25 species of birds from the stomach contents of 85 Burmese pythons. The tally includes such endangered species as the limpkin and the wood stork-which stands more than three feet tall. "These snakes are growing bigger and eating bigger things," Dove says, including alligators and deer. (In their native habitat, Southeast Asia and southern China, they even eat small leopards.) The largest snake captured in the park was almost 17 feet long. Dove's research, published in the March issue of the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, is essential for figuring out how to deal with these predators, Snow says.

There is no quick fix. Snow envisions a three-pronged program-education, prevention (keeping new exotic snakes out of the Everglades) and suppression (killing as many pythons as possible). Dove's research will help bolster support for and refine the effort, he says: "We may be quite surprised to find the degree that these animals have already threatened the integrity of Everglades National Park."

In the lab, Dove has identified the new sample as a pied-billed grebe, a small bird that spends most of its time on lakes or ponds diving for food. The research has made a big impression on her. "This is pretty close to the most memorable work I've done," Dove says, "because it's been really smelly."

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About Arcynta Ali Childs

Arcynta Ali Childs was awarded journalism fellowships from the New York Times Student Journalism Institute, the National Press Foundation, the Poynter Institute and the Village Voice. She also has worked at Ms. Magazine, O and Smithsonian.

Read more from this author | Follow @arcynta

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Carla Dove, head of the National Museum of Natural History's Feather Identification Lab, is working on a mystery. Surrounded by racks of embalmed birds in jars, she digs through the contents of a red cooler, pushing aside paper and ice packs and finally opening a plastic garbage bag.

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As apart of their plan to decrease the python population in Florida a python hunt was held. Thousands of people across the country attended the event in hope of getting rid of the invasive pythons. The hunt is also a challenge to see which group can collect the most pythons . The group who caught the most pythons collected 33 pythons. The pythons are killed once collected and are sent to researchers to gain information about theses pythons in Florida

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IN THE 1980s, a few Burmese pythons slithered out of their cages and into the Florida Everglades. Today, thousands terrorize its forests and mangroves, gobbling up any unsuspecting animal-cranes, deer, even alligators-they can swallow.

Florida is trying to fight it in a very Florida way: the Python Challenge. For about a month, local officials allow "python hunters" to tramp around 1.6 million acres of swamp and sawgrass to catch and humanely kill the scaly menace. It might sound like a backwoods bonanza, but the hunters are passionate about conservation. "Of course it's a cool thing to say you helped capture this insane animal, but they were more interested in helping the cause," says photographer Dylan Johnston.

Johnston documented the event for his series Python Hunt. He lives in Brooklyn, but grew up in Orlando. The Everglades always fascinated him. "It's kind of like the Wild West, with people running around and things that can kill you at every corner," he says. "But it's also really beautiful." When he heard about the first-ever Python Challenge in late 2012, Johnston had to check it out.

Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched the competition to cut down on the numbers of snakes while raising awareness about the harm they cause. Though Burmese pythons are popular exotic pets, they're now illegal in Florida after so many escaped or were released into the wild. The snakes threaten the ecosystem of the Everglades, preying on native species and competing with them for food.

The first Python Challenge took place in 2013 and then again in January 2016. Johnston photographed both events, trailing along behind groups of python hunters with no protection save for a couple of cameras. Over 1,000 people from around the US and Canada ventured into the swamplands in ATVs, airboats, and swamp buggies. While some people were officially licensed python hunters, anyone could participate if they took an online training course that walks you through the basics of taking down a python.

The goal is to capture the creature alive so it can be studied and later euthanized, though some areas allow hunters to kill them on site. To avoid a painful-though non-venomous-bite, hunters approach the snake from behind and pin down its neck with a snake hook. Then they grab the python behind the jawbone, lower it into a pillowcase and lock it away in a tightly secured plastic box for transport. But first they have to find one.

Despite the hundreds of hunters roaming around, it can take around 15 hours to track down a python. The snakes typically hide in marshes and underbrush, and are easily confused with corn snakes and brown water snakes. The winter weather meant more pythons were out sunning on open roads and banks, but Johnston still spent hours with a group and came up empty. "It's just looking, looking, looking often with no prize," he says. Contestants of the first Python Challenge only bagged 68 snakes (Researchers released some back into the wild). The second produced 106-one a whopping 15 feet long.

Johnston only saw one snake in January, when a group dubbed "The Swamp Apes" nabbed a five-footer in Frog Pond at the southern end of the Everglades. A hunter asked Johnston if he wanted to hold the python, but he was content to just photograph them. "I actually don't like snakes that much," Johnston says. Maybe next time.

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Florida Has a Competition to Hunt Pythons Because Florida

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IN THE 1980s, a few Burmese pythons slithered out of their cages and into the Florida Everglades. Today, thousands terrorize its forests and mangroves, gobbling up any unsuspecting animal-cranes, deer, even alligators-they can swallow. Florida is trying to fight it in a very Florida way: the Python Challenge.

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Largest Recorded Python found in Florida 

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Largest Recorded Python found in Florida 

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On March 19 , 2016 a team of researchers in Florida went on a hunt for the invasive Burmese python. Over 40 snakes were captured one of the snakes measured out to be 16 feet long and weighed 140 lbs making it the largest recorded python found in Florida. One of the reasons why theses pythons are established in Florida is because of Hurricane Andrew through its destruction swept the pythons from the pet stores to the evergrades.

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Following the monthlong Burmese Python removal competition designed to remove as many of the snakes from the Everglades as possible, there still remains an inordinate amount of pythons. Researchers who have been tracking Burmese pythons captured more than one ton over the last three months in southwest Florida.

Among the 43 pythons removed researchers found the largest male python ever documented in south Florida, measuring 16 feet and weighing more than 140 pounds.

"Burmese pythons are cracking the code on the Southwest Florida habitat, learning how to survive and breed locally," the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said in a press release.

Over the last three years, researchers at the government agency have enlisted the help of captured pythons.

By tagging "snitch snakes" with radio trackers, researchers hope to study where the pythons are living in order to catch other snakes. Fifteen adult pythons are currently being surveyed by radio tags so scientists can learn more about the ecological implications of the invasive species.

For example, a captured male python named Captain Kirkland has been credited for the removal of the 43 snakes, by leading researchers to more pythons and allowing them to gain a better understanding of the animal's movement patterns.

Due to the massive amount of pythons, the creature has become one of the top predators in the Everglades, morphing the area's ecological landscape.

"The ecological impact of removing so many adult pythons from a relatively small area of Collier County can only be positive for our native wildlife," said Ian Bartoszek, biologist for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in a press release.

"We need to utilize all tools available and develop additional techniques to capture and remove Burmese pythons in Florida," he said.

Once allowed as an exotic pet, officials trace the Burmese python's entry into the ecosystem to 1992, when "Burmese pythons escaped from a breeding facility that was destroyed during Hurricane Andrew," according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's website. "It is also likely that pet pythons have been released in and around the Everglades," it says.

The effect has been profound; the invasive species is responsible for causing the near "complete disappearance of raccoons, rabbits and opossums," according to the USGS, and goes almost completely unchecked in its environment.

CNN's Kevin Conlon contributed to this report.

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largest burmese python captured in florida  - cnn

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'Snitch' pythons lead researchers to other pests

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Following the monthlong Burmese Python removal competition designed to remove as many of the snakes from the Everglades as possible, there still remains an inordinate amount of pythons. Researchers who have been tracking Burmese pythons captured more than one ton over the last three months in southwest Florida.

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Since the early 2000's there has been rapid  increase of invasive pythons in the everglades. The were said to have been introduced into Florida by the snakes being dumped outside when they get to be too big for their owners. There is an estimated 100,000 pythons that are living in the everglades. The effect of theses non native snakes living in the everglades is that they have caused a decline in population of native species.

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Ever since a serpent enticed Eve to munch on that forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, relations between humans and snakes have been at best strained. But at least the gullible Eve and her mate had to cope with just the one snake. In South Florida, wildlife officials have struggled for years with tens of thousands of the creatures: specifically, a species known as the Burmese python, an interloper from Southeast Asia that has taken up what looks like permanent residence in Everglades National Park and other areas of the state.

This is some snake. At full maturity, a Burmese python routinely reaches lengths of 12 feet or more. Twenty-footers weighing 250 pounds are not unheard-of. The pythons are prodigious breeders, with voracious appetites to match. They are believed to have eaten their way through the Everglades, bringing about startling changes in the ecosystem. Some mammals native to those marshes, like foxes and rabbits, seem to have disappeared, researchers say. Other species - among them raccoons, deer, opossums and bobcats - are close to being wiped out. Pythons that migrated from the mainland to Key Largo have put indigenous wood rats in mortal peril.

Retro Report, a series of video documentaries exploring major news stories of the past, trains its lens on the dawning realization more than a dozen years ago that the Burmese python had the potential to alter Florida's environment far more than people realized. But the issue is really greater than one breed of Asian snakes that ran wild after being imported into the country as pets. The United States is awash in invasive species exacting a heavy toll on native wildlife and vegetation. The list of intruders is long. To name but a few, they include Argentine tegus, large lizards that feast on sea turtle eggs; venomous lionfish from Asia, which prey on local varieties of fish; Nile monitor lizards from Africa, which love to eat frogs and crocodile eggs; zebra mussels from Russia, which harm waterways and damage water treatment plants; and Asian carp, which threaten the environmental balance of the Great Lakes.

Florida draws much of the attention because its swamps and tropical climate provide splendid shelter for all sorts of creatures that are not supposed to call this country home. The state, as more than one person has observed, is the Ellis Island of exotic species.

Like many animals previously unknown on the North American continent, the Burmese python arrived through the pet trade. (Language purists might reasonably ask if it is fair to describe these snakes as invasive. It is not as if they barged in on their own. People created the problem.) At least two million constrictor snakes - boas, anacondas and pythons - are believed to have been imported since the 1970s, part of a lucrative market for exotic species. Miami is an important hub for this trafficking.

One issue with Burmese pythons is that people cavalierly bought them when they were maybe a foot long. In short order, those little fellows grew to eight feet, 12 feet, 16 feet. Talk about buyer's remorse. Unable to deal with these giants, owners often dumped them wherever seemed feasible. One way or another, snakes in South Florida found their way to the Everglades. There, they multiplied, again and again. Recent estimates by the National Park Service put the numbers there as high as 100,000. Walter E. Meshaka Jr. was the supervisory curator for national parks in southern Florida from 1995 to 2000. Even back then, Mr. Meshaka told Retro Report, the question was whether the python population would explode. And, he said, "Lo and behold, it did."

Quite possibly, some experts in the field suggest, the local wildlife has been slow to appreciate the menace. "It's probably a safe assumption that things like raccoons and possums probably don't associate snakes with being something that really is a major threat to them," Michael E. Dorcas, a herpetologist at Davidson College in North Carolina, said in a 2012 interview with Yale Environment 360, an online publication of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. "Because," Mr. Dorcas continued, "there really hasn't been a snake big enough to eat a raccoon living in Florida for about 18 million years."

While the python is more of a direct threat to native birds and animals than to people, attacks on humans are not unknown. One of the more horrifying instances occurred in 2009 when a 2-year-old girl in northern Florida was strangled by a Burmese python that belonged to her mother's boyfriend. This eight-foot snake, which was later found to have been severely malnourished, broke free, coiled itself around the girl and squeezed her to death. Both the mother and the boyfriend were held responsible - convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The authorities in Florida have tried getting the unwelcome reptile population under control, but to little avail. A couple of years ago, they organized a Python Challenge, a come-one, come-all snake hunt on state land near Everglades National Park. It put barely a dent in the python population; no more than a few dozen of them were captured. Pythons have shown themselves to be masters of stealth. In a rather glum assessment, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement last month that "scientists have not found any way of eradicating invasive constrictor snakes once they become established in the wild." Some experts say the best hope to kill these creatures en masse may be a deep and prolonged freeze in southern Florida. Of course, everyone would then worry about the devastating effect on the state's citrus crop.

Should other sections of the country start fretting about possible python incursions of their own? Yes, say some scientists who predict that, in coming decades, the invaders could slither their way across one-third of the United States - perhaps even reaching New York City by 2100. Other experts, however, wave off such fears as overblown.

The Obama administration has chosen to take a stand. Three years ago, the Fish and Wildlife Service banned imports and interstate transport of four species of constrictors: Burmese pythons, yellow anacondas and northern and southern African pythons. Last month, the prohibition was extended to four other species: reticulated pythons, DeSchauensee's anacondas, green anacondas and Beni anacondas. (Boa constrictors, an important component of the pet snake trade, were spared a ban.) Not surprisingly, reptile sellers and breeders are not happy with the restrictions, with slippery slopesters among them warning that all kinds of animals, including more familiar household pets, could become the next government target.

Effective or not, the import bans are a recognition that some species labeled invaders were invited in by humans. It is a reality reminiscent of a famous line from no less than a swamp creature: the possum Pogo, whose name was the title of Walt Kelly 's long-running comic strip. Referring to unwelcome environmental change, Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Correction:

An earlier version of this article misstated the location of Burma. It is north of the Equator, not south of it.

The video with this article is part of a documentary series presented by The New York Times. The video project was started with a grant from Christopher Buck. Retro Report has a staff of 13 journalists and 10 contributors led by Kyra Darnton. It is a nonprofit video news organization that aims to provide a thoughtful counterweight to today's 24/7 news cycle. Previous episodes are at nytimes.com/retroreport. To suggest ideas for future reports, email retroreport@nytimes.com.

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Ever since a serpent enticed Eve to munch on that forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, relations between humans and snakes have been at best strained. But at least the gullible Eve and her mate had to cope with just the one snake.

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Following the python hunt of 2013 a second hunt was held early winter in the year of 2016. Over 106 pythons were caught during this hunt beating the 68 found last hunt by 38 pythons. Over a thousand people from 29 different states registered to be apart of the hunt. Once they were caught the snakes were killed and sent to researchers that will use the collected the snakes for information on how to control the population of pythons in Florida.

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DAVIE, Fla. -- The 106 Burmese pythons captured over a monthlong hunt won't help control Florida's invasive snake population, but wildlife officials said Saturday that doesn't matter as much as the awareness they bring to the state's environmental concerns.

Thousands of pythons, far from their natural habitat in Southeast Asia, are believed to be stalking Florida wildlife in the beleaguered Everglades.

The tan, splotchy snakes can be elusive in the wetlands, but Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials say volunteer python removal programs and two state-sanctioned hunts since 2009 are focusing more eyes to the problem.

"Whether they're fishermen or they're hunters or they're hikers or they're birdwatchers -- they're all looking for the python," said wildlife commissioner Ron Bergeron. "The success of the 'Python Challenge' has broadened out to thousands of people now."
PYTHON CHALLENGE
The longest python caught during the hunt that ran between Jan. 16 and Feb. 14 was 15 feet long. It was caught by a team led by Bill Booth of Sarasota.

Booth's team also took home a prize for largest haul of snakes: 33 pythons.

Over 1,000 people from 29 states registered to remove pythons from South Florida's wetlands.

Daniel Moniz of Bricktown, New Jersey, suffered bites to the face, neck and arm from the 13-foot-8.7-inch python that won him a prize for the longest python caught by an individual.

Faced with a winter layoff from his landscaping job, he completed the wildlife commission's online training and spent a month biking over 40 miles a day over levees through the wetlands, eventually bagging a total of 13 pythons.

The longest one tried to swim away, until he dove on top of it. "I got it under control and stuffed it in a pillow case," he said.

Frank Mazzotti of the University of Florida said the stomach contents of the captured pythons are still being analyzed, but so far the prey has included a fawn and a wood stork and other large wading birds.

All the snakes captured were killed and turned over to researchers trying to find clues to help control the python population.
CUSTOM TROPHIES
Once the necropsies are complete, the hunters can reclaim their dead snakes. About a third of have been turned over to Brian Wood of All American Gator in Hollywood.

Half the hunters want him to make something from the pythons they caught -- a wall hanging, a pair of boots, or a purse for the wife at a fraction of the cost of a python clutch bearing a luxury designer logo.

The other half are selling him their dead snakes for up to $150 apiece -- about the same price Wood pays for fully processed, tanned and dyed python skins imported from Asia. (In Wood's store, swatches show python skins dyed teal, rose pink, pale yellow and metallic gold, among other hues.)

Wood also turned about 20 pythons caught during the 2013 Python Challenge into accessories. Pythons that once slithered through the Everglades now slide out of pockets as black-and-white billfolds or hang off arms as roomy purses. A couple now stride down sidewalks, transformed into pairs of Chuck Taylor sneakers.

"It's kind of cool to be able to get something that's invasive, not something that's endangered," Wood said.

He says he regularly supplies European luxury brands with alligator skins, but they aren't interested in Florida's pythons. The state's invasive snakes aren't tracked by international trade conventions, and the volume can't compare with the hundreds of thousands of python skins supplied each by about 10 countries in Southeast Asia.

They're also looking for sustainable sources of python skins, while Florida just wants to be rid of its python supply.

Unfortunately, pythons are not Wood's only supply of invasive species leathers.

"I'm trying to promote this lizard we have that's taken over," he says, meaning iguanas, which his sons are hired to hunt in South Florida's urban and suburban environments.

The first public python hunt in 2013 netted 68 snakes. Cool temperatures and more training appeared to help this year's hunters.

In the Florida Everglades, it is "basking season" for Burmese pythons when the cold-blooded snakes seek out the warmth of the sun. Officials say the cooler weather right now has forced more of the snakes into the open and may be helping with the tally this year.

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106 Burmese pythons captured in Florida hunt

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DAVIE, Fla. -- The 106 Burmese pythons captured over a monthlong hunt won't help control Florida's invasive snake population, but wildlife officials said Saturday that doesn't matter as much as the awareness they bring to the state's environmental concerns. Thousands of pythons, far from their natural habitat in Southeast Asia, are believed to be stalking Florida wildlife in the beleaguered Everglades.