Posted on 05/15/2008 9:54:51 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Giant pythons capable of swallowing a dog and even an alligator are rapidly making south Florida their home, potentially threatening other southeastern states, a study said.
"Pythons are likely to colonize anywhere alligators live, including north Florida, Georgia and Louisiana," said Frank Mazzotti, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences professor, in his two-year study.
The pythons thriving in Florida are mostly Burmese pythons from Myanmar that were brought over as pets and then turned loose in the wild.
From 2002-2005, 201 of the beasts were caught by state authorities, but in the last two years the number has more than doubled to 418, Mazzotti said in his study published on the university website.
The largest python caught so far in Florida measured five meters (16.4 feet) and weighed 70 kilograms (154 pounds).
Mazzotti said the serpents, despite their awesome size, are not poisonous, but are excellent swimmers and able to cover great distances in little time. Some, trapped and released with radio transmitters, swam 60 kilometers (37 miles) in a few hours.
Highly adaptable, pythons prey on cats, dogs, hares, foxes, squirrels, raccoons and even alligators, allowing them to thrive in a variety of environments.
After populating the Florida Everglades -- a vast marshland -- where it is estimated they number 30,000, the giant python is now spreading across the rest of the peninsula.
"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," said Mazzotti, adding that the reptile could eventually populate the entire southern United States.
“Sorry don’t have a receipt, as it wasn’t on my Thai Restaurants menu. “
Well then, you won’t be able to expense it.
Just have contest and give prizes to everyone who comes in with a dead python.
Crazy as they are, enviros want to exterminate any non-native species. They did it to the European Goldfinch, and (thank God) piranhas in the Florida canal system.
Florida is full of exotics, inncluding a dozen different species of parrots, African Cattle Egrets, and giant poisonous monitor lizards. I am in Ocala, and we came within an inch of establishing monkeys in the Ocala national Forest (from Tarzan movies filmed in Silver Springs).
I also don't have a recipe.
The last story I saw on this was from a San Francisco paper and predicted the snakes would be invading California all the way from Florida. Not quite sure how pythons would do in the Rockies myself.
;^)
:)
MM,
Well, the gator or croc in the kitchen of that lady a few weeks ago was scary enough...but now there are PYTHONS too!
Yikes!
Although I’m in North Fl. we are not near any water so I feel safe from the critters! (If you’re not including spiders and cockroaches)
;0 As for that grass you mention...I WISH we had that. We have mostly sand here in the country!
Junie K.
Interesting, I had no idea. They are at least doing something right.
There is a rural area not far from us that has slowly built up a population of parrots and a few people living in that area think it's just wonderful. When efforts to trap or otherwise get rid of them those few people have made much noise to leave them alone, I don't think they are enviros but just people who like to see them around. I believe the WA Fish and Game should to do something before long because they're multiplying.
Any parrots up there are probably Monk or Quaker Parrots (two names for one species). They are medium sized, green backs and gray fronts and are cold tolerant. Budgerigars (Budgies) probably can’t take the cold.
I deleted the gif I had made to respond to that! The girl is gone..
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