You do realize that it’s not irresponsible pet owners that caused the Burmese infestation in the Everglades right? Hurricane Andrew destroyed a very poorly built breeding and importation facility in that area years ago... that’s where the Burms, the cobras, the eyelash vipers, the mambas and other snakes came from. You never hear about the venomous ones there... only the big, really scary, wet your pants if you see one, Burmese pythons. Ever ask yourself why that is?
Adult Burmese pythons eat only a few times a year. In winter, they fast as the temperatures will fall low enough where they cannot digest food. Males will go off food in breeding season as well. When you look at how these snakes live and what their husbandry requirements are, all of a sudden, the claim that they’re eating everything in the Everglades is a bit unrealistic. Actually, it’s just flat out BS. To do the damage that is being claimed, you would need more than 50 adult Burmese pythons per acre. I can assure you, that is simply not the case.
Like I’ve said before... blame the snakes and kiss the Everglades good bye. Look at the real problem and fix it before it’s too late.
I was born and raised in Miami. Left in 1984 prior to the python infestation. But I saw plenty of other ‘exotics’ . Had a Melaleuca (aka Paper)tree in my yard. Bufo toads (S. America) in the yard. Iguanas and Cuban lizards, parrots in the neighborhood.
Expecting an infestations of piranhas. There is already a similar fish that looks just like them, sans teeth in pet shops.
A lot of these infestations are loose pets.
And Lion Fish? Their origin is not in question IMO.
I’ll only add the remote possibility of the Panama Canal.
From Wiki.
.............. Miami, in particular, is the hub for trade in exotic pets within the United States. Although the exact origin of Burmese pythons in the Everglades is unknown, it is likely that many were once pets released by owners who found them too difficult to care for.[7]
An evaluation of the genetic structure of Burmese pythons sampled from Everglades National Park determined that the population is genetically distinct from pythons sampled in the native range, but within the Everglades population, there is little genetic diversity.
This finding either indicates that the python population is freely interbreeding or corroborates the hypothesis that the individuals originate from a specific source population such as the pet trade
.[8.............Authors..
Collins, Timothy M., Barbie Freeman, and Skip Snow. “Final Report: Genetic Characterization of Populations of the Nonindigenous Burmese Python in Everglades National Park.” Final Report for the South Florida Water Management District. Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, 2008.