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Is The Burmese Python Invasive Or Just Non Native?

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Is The Burmese Python Invasive Or Just Non Native?

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The Burmese python is definitely invasive. They are the apex predator, as mentioned before, so they have no natural predators to the snake themselves.

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The Key Largo woodrat is a rat that has been affected by the Burmese python. It is not just an epidemic in the Everglades, it's a problem in Key Largo.
Because the Burmese python is the apex predator, the population of the snake is growing wildly.
With the increasing population, the Largo rats are dwindling. They will soon be extinct if not helped.

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The Key Largo woodrat is a federally endangered species that is endemic to Key Largo, Florida. This island population is separated by approximately 130 miles from the nearest population of woodrats on the mainland of Florida. Historically, the Key Largo woodrat occupied all of Key Largo, but today is restricted to approximately 2,000 acres in the northern one-third of the island.
Habitat
The Key Largo woodrat is a resident of tropical hardwood hammocks, a type of forest that occurs on upland areas in the Keys. These hammocks provide a shady, humid environment with less wind and temperature variation than more exposed areas. The soils are poorly developed and typically consist of a thin humus layer and litter lying on a limestone substrate. On Key Largo, tropical hardwood hammocks include a greater number of tropical plants than hammocks on the mainland. Many tree and shrub species are West Indian in origin and co-occur with a variety of vine species from temperate North America and the West Indies. The canopy within these forests typically reaches a height of 30 to 40 feet.
Threats
Habitat loss due to development and deforestation, and predation, particularly from feral house cats are the main factors limiting distribution of the Key Largo woodrat on the island. Despite protection of its remaining habitat, the Key Largo woodrat has continued to decline since its listing in 1984. The magnitude of this decline is not clear; a report from 1973 suggested that only 800 individuals may remain, and although the population was estimated at approximately 6,500 individuals in 1988, all subsequent estimates have suggested that < 500 individuals remain in the wild.
Behavior
Like other woodrat species, the Key Largo woodrat uses sticks, twigs, and other objects to build large stick nests in the hammock. These nests can reach 4 feet in height and 8 feet in diameter. Nests are typically occupied by a single woodrat, but individuals may maintain multiple nests throughout their home range. In addition to building natural nests on the forest floor, they also occupy cracks and crevices in the limestone and occasionally non-natural structures such as rock piles.

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The Key Largo woodrat ( Neotoma floridana smalli ) is a nocturnal 7-9-ounce rodent that is reddish above, cinnamon on the sides, and has a cream or white belly coloration. Its forefeet are white to the wrist and hindfeet are white to the ankles. It has large ears, protuberant eyes, and a hairy tail.

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Burmese pythons lived in the marshes and jungles of southeast Asia.
As they do in the Everglades, their predators consist the same animals.
Hatchlings are vulnerable to the same animals, as well.
They eat small mammals and birds. Large pythons can eat pigs or goats. They also attack alligators

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How Did This Harmful Snake Come Into The Everglades?

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How Did This Harmful Snake Come Into The Everglades?

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In the 1970s, the Burmese python was actually spotted after an irresponsible pet owner released it.

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At a coffee shop in Davie, Florida, I'm waiting for wildlife biologist Ian Bartoszek. He causes a huge stir as he walks in with a giant platter of what could easily be choux pastries. Patrons look on confused, some approaching to ask if they are potatoes.

"These are Burmese python eggs," he tells them. "Right now in the field, there are many female pythons we didn't catch sitting on a clutch like this that will probably hatch."

The clutch of 40 desiccated eggs he carries is a highly effective hammer to drive home his point. Bartoszek, who works for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, feels it is necessary to do everything he can to bring people's attention to the havoc these creatures are wreaking.

Florida's Everglades are known internationally for their alligators, but now another reptile has become king: The invasive Burmese python. Native to South and Southeast Asia, the snake species was first sighted in the Florida Everglades in the 1970s, after irresponsible pet owners released them into the ecosystem.

The Everglades' subtropical environment, with its ideal temperatures and abundance of defenseless prey, has helped the population of Burmese pythons explode.

The subtropical environment, with its ideal temperatures and abundance of defenseless prey, helped their population explode. Today, the consequences are being felt.
Eating their way through native wildlife
By some estimates, their numbers may now exceed 150,000. The huge reptiles, which can grow to lengths of 23 feet (7 meters), and which weigh in at 250 pounds (113.4 kilograms), have eaten their way though much of the native wildlife, including raccoons, foxes, marsh rabbits, and birds.
Read more: Can The Everglades Be Saved?
"We have recorded a 99 percent reduction of fur-bearing animals," says Michael Kirkland, Invasive Animal Biologist at South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). "They are now preying on wading birds and even the occasional alligator."

As populations of smaller mammals dwindle, the effects ripple up the food chain, and native predators like alligators and endangered Florida panthers lose their primary food sources.

"The pythons have essentially wiped out their prey base in Miami-Dade County, Everglades National Park and surrounding areas. We suspect they are going to be expanding their territories both west and north," says Kirkland.

The Everglades ecosystem, which once sprawled across more than 6,250 square miles (16,187 square kilometers), has been reduced to half its original size by agriculture and urban expansion, and now the pythons threaten to make the 'glades barren of life.

Florida's Everglades are known internationally for their alligators, but now another reptile has become king: the invasive Burmese python.

"Doing nothing is not an option," Kirkland asserts. To protect the remaining wildlife, the SFWMD has licensed a select group to participate in its python hunting program, which began last year.

Read more: Invading iguanas tear through Florida's ecosystem
Hunting in the dark
Recording its 1,100th python catch recently, the agency has extended the program and the Everglades National Park is joining the effort, recruiting python hunters to remove the snakes and permitting the use of shotguns. "I believe the park is really the epicenter of the python invasion," asserts Kirkland.

The Everglades is a tough environment - a vast, slow-moving waterway with a surprising variety of terrain and dramatic seasonal changes. With oppressively sticky heat, biting flies, razor-sharp sawgrass and even poisonous trees, it's no walk in the park.

Hunters can spend a whole week of 12-hour days looking for pythons without finding a single one, so perseverance is key. Thomas Rahill, one of those authorized to remove the snakes, is founder of the Swamp Apes, a group mostly composed of military veterans dedicated to fighting invasive species. He is well aware of the perils of the job.

"When you come across a big python, I don't care where you are, it is a very dangerous animal, you have to know what you are doing," he says.

Once the sun sets, impenetrable darkness quickly descends over the 'glades. Firing up a spotlight mounted on his car roof, Rahill looks for pythons crossing on the levees, which are the perfect places for these cold-blooded predators to warm up.

As one of the largest snakes in the world, they are ectotherms - meaning their body temperature regulation depends on external sources, such as sunlight or a heated rock surface.

Rahill says most of the 500 snakes the Swamp Apes have caught were found while road cruising on the levees, especially at night.

Swamp Apes, a group mostly composed of military veterans dedicated to fighting invasive species, display a catch.

Swamp Ape python hunters also walk along the sides of the levees, searching every hole and burrow, looking for python nests with a borescope camera. As they move on, they cover the holes with dried sawgrass, returning later to check for disturbances.
Apex predators
Rahill's team also takes boats out to tree-covered islands, where they push through dense vegetation on foot - a technique they call "jungle busting."

Back at the coffee shop, biologist Ian Bartoszek expands on the urgent need to understand the pythons' behavior. The team at Conservancy of Southwest Florida has implanted male pythons with transmitters and tracked them, with definite success.

Their research area now covers 50 square miles, having expanded significantly over the past five years. In February this year, an implanted snake they named "Argo" led them to a 99-pound gravid female python. Three days later, Argo was released and tracked again to seven snakes, including a 115-pound female.
Read more: Poachers target endangered animals in protected areas, study finds
In four years of tracking, the team has removed 10,000 pounds of python biomass from their research area.

"We are interested in busting up those breeding aggregations. We are not looking for the street dealers, we are looking for the distributors," explains Bartoszek.

The conservancy now has 20 male snakes working for them. Other researchers are attempting to synthesize the python's pheromones to attract larger numbers of pythons.

"I have a feeling we're definitely gaining some ground in some key areas," Bartoszek tells DW.

The Burmese python's reign is challenging the Everglades apex predator, the alligator. Recently, Mike Kimmel, a hunter with the SFWMD, rescued a 4-foot alligator from the grip of a 10-foot python.

As Mike Kirkland puts it, "pythons really are the apex predator now - a large python and a large alligator, either one could win that battle. The alligator is about the only native animal down here that could possibly win."

Earlier this year, conservancy biologists discovered a 3.35 meter long female python with a white-tailed deer inside its mouth.

Earlier this year, conservancy biologists from Collier-Seminole State Park, a Florida State Park located on the southwest coast of the US state, discovered a 11-foot long female python with a white-tailed deer inside its mouth.

"That was a 31.5-pound python that had a 35-pound white-tailed fawn in it. It was eating 111 percent of its body weight," says Bartoszek.

It is the largest documented prey-to-predator ratio documented for a Burmese python. "I'm holding it in my hands looking at this small jaw. It was a turning point. I knew then the beast we're dealing with and what it is capable of."

Record-breaking snakes

Snakes that fly

This snake can propel itself forward by thrusting its body up and away from a tree. That's why it is commonly known as the "flying snake." It curls itself up to resemble the form of a frisbee and glide up to 30 meters wide from tree to tree. Its biological name is Chrysopelea and it feeds on lizards, rodents, birds and even bats. But it's harmless to humans.

Author: Brigitte Osterath, Sophia Wagner

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The Burmese python and the fight for the Florida Everglades | DW | 11.07.2018

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At a coffee shop in Davie, Florida, I'm waiting for wildlife biologist Ian Bartoszek. He causes a huge stir as he walks in with a giant platter of what could easily be choux pastries. Patrons look on confused, some approaching to ask if they are potatoes. "These are Burmese python eggs," he tells them.

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These pythons come from southeast Asia. The jungles and grassy marshes, to be exact.
They now populate the Everglades, Florida.
They have predators in the Everglades, too. Those consist of  alligators, American crocodiles, black bears, and cougars.
Hatchlings are vulnerable to hawks, golden eagles, bobcats, and raccoons.
Abiotic factors that affect the python is lack of water, higher temperature, and lack of shade

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Burmese pythons are one of the largest species of snakes in the world. They are tan with dark 'giraffe' spots on the back and sides.
They are known to eat wood stark, Key Largo woodrats, and more. They compete with native predators for food, habitat, and space.