They are making a much bigger deal about this so they can continue to take away our freedoms. Most of these big snakes can not handle temps lower than 75-80 degrees and will die off due to the normal winter temp fluctuations. And yes, there are people hunting these snakes and they find some, but not a huge population taking over Florida.
Typical fear mongering....
Most invasive species undergo quite a population explosion, then subside to a lower level. Pythons in Florida will be similar in their population dynamics.
Bureaucratic population dynamics will not resemble the python population dynamics in that once an agency job (python catcher) is created, there are numerous agency pressures to increase the number of python catcher job slots to the level where a supervisor of python catchers is justifiable.
Soon, an entire division of Python Population Management is found essential. Such invasive species are the stuff of agency management wet dreams.
And tax payer nightmares.
You're probably right. A more serious problem would occur if a breeding population of a dangerous, subtropical snake (such as mambas) who can survive cold spells became established.
However, I wouldn't want my children or dog to run into a giant constrictor before it froze.
This information from the article is wrong: The snakes ambush prey from the water and constrict them with an immediately deadly, bone-crushing force.
Unless shock takes over, any large animal taken by one of these snakes will experience a very torturous few minutes before it dies.
What parts of the US mainland are climatically suitable for invasive alien pythons spreading from Everglades National Park
http://www.usark.org/uploads/PythonClimate_Rodda_etAl.doc
Abstract
The Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus) is now well established in southern Florida and spreading northward.
The factors likely to limit this spread are unknown, but presumably include climate or are correlated with climate.
We compiled monthly rainfall and temperature statistics from 149 stations located near the edge of the python’s native range in Asia (Pakistan east to China and south to Indonesia). The southern and eastern native range limits extend to saltwater, leaving unresolved the species’ climatic tolerances in those areas. The northern and western limits are associated with cold and aridity respectively. We plotted mean monthly rainfall against mean monthly temperature for the 149 native range weather stations to identify the climate conditions inhabited by pythons in their native range, and mapped areas of the coterminous United States with the same climate today and projected for the year 2100. We accounted for both dry-season aestivation and winter hibernation (under two scenarios of hibernation duration). The potential distribution was relatively insensitive to choice of scenario for hibernation duration.
US areas climatically-matched at present ranged up the coasts and across the south from Delaware to Oregon, and included most of California, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South and North Carolina.
By the year 2100, projected areas of potential suitable climate extend northward beyond the current limit to include parts of the states of Washington, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Thus a substantial portion of the mainland US is potentially vulnerable to this ostensibly tropical invader.