Free Republic

Scientists at the University of Florida are deploying the so-called “robo-bunnies” throughout South Florida in hopes of drawing Burmese pythons out of their hiding places so they can be euthanized, reports Kimberly Miller for the Palm Beach Post. By luring the pythons to the rabbit look-alikes, biologists can save time that might otherwise be spent searching through the swamp for the snakes. The animatronic rabbits are outfitted with motors and internal heaters that are designed to replicate the behaviors and body temperatures of live marsh rabbits (Sylvilagus palustris), which Burmese pythons love to eat. The South Florida Water Management District...

Introduced from South America, mathenge was intended to halt desertification, but now three-quarters of the country is at risk of invasion by the invasive tree For his entire life, John Lmakato has lived in Lerata, a village nestled at the foot of Mount Ololokwe in northern Kenya’s Samburu county. “This used to be a treeless land. Grass covered every inch of the rangelands, and livestock roamed freely,” he says. Lmakato’s livestock used to roam freely in search of pasture, but three years ago he lost 193 cattle after they wandered into a conservation area in Laikipia – known for the...

L.A.'s fragile urban canopy was dealt a vicious blow this weekend when a chainsaw-wielding vandal cut down a number of shade trees along South Grand Avenue and other areas of downtown, according to media posts and photos uploaded to Reddit and Instagram. The Los Angeles Police Department told The Times it had no information about the tree destruction, and an email and phone call to the city's Urban Forestry Division went unanswered Sunday.

We've been accidentally giving them a free ride around the ocean. Now it's time to think with our appetites. Image credit: JDScuba / Shutterstock.com If you live on The Internet, you’ve likely heard about carcinization: a kind of convergent evolution that’s seen a surprisingly large number of living things evolve crab-like bodies. So, are crabs peak performance? Given the meteoric rise of a species currently invading the oceans, they just might be. Enter: the European green crab, Carcinus maenas. They are a staple feature across parts of the Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea, but have since spread from their native...

Red fire ants are one of the world's worst and costliest invasive alien species - and they're making Italy their home. One of the world’s worst invasive alien species has arrived in Europe for the first time, a new study reveals. The red fire ant has formed a mature population in Sicily, Italy, according to research published in the scientific journal Current Biology. The study warns that, with the help of global warming, the ants could spread across the continent. The climate in half of Europe’s urban areas is already suitable for the species. This could have devastating and costly...

In the last five years, the Hawaiian emergency alarm system mistakenly went off two different times, causing panic among residents. This week, the system fell short yet again but in a profound way — there was never a warning to the community about the latest wildfires set ablaze on the island of Maui. zp> Most survivors had little warning of the gaining fire until they smelled smoke or saw flames, reported The Associated Press. Dustin Kaleiopu, a resident of the city of Lahaina that’s in ruins, left his home with his grandfather when smoke started coming through the window,...

The Florida Python Challenge draws in hundreds of participants each year from as far away as Canada, Belgium and Latvia who are charmed by the prospect of fame and fortune, including up to $30,000 (£23,600) in prize money. Recent Python Challenge winners include a deaf science teacher who bagged a nearly 16ft snake with his bare hands, a father-and-son duo who rapidly despatched 41 snakes and a 19-year-old who said he would use his $10,000 prize to buy better snake-spotting lights for his truck. ..."Once it slithered out in the road, I got to see the massive size of this...

Super hybrid pigs invading. Originally bred to tolerate the Canadian cold, they are now invading America. More at link.

After nearly five months of waiting, an alarm activated on Michael Cove’s radio, a sign his study was working. To hunt pythons, an invasive predator in the Florida Keys, Cove and fellow researchers have been strapping GPS collars to opossums and raccoons. When one was eaten by a python in September, researchers programmed the device to notify them from within the snake’s stomach.... According to a ScienceDaily study, the number of raccoons, opossums and bobcats in the Everglades all dropped by at least 87 percent between 1997 and 2012. The same study found that marsh and cottontail rabbits and foxes...

EVERGLADES, Fla. – An entire alligator was found inside a massive Burmese python in Florida – and the video has gone viral on social media. The clip was shared by geoscientist Rosie Moore on Instagram where it has racked up over 300,000 reactions. She told FOX 35 that the video was taken several months ago but that she just recently posted it online. “This particular python was roughly 18-foot and had consumed a 5-foot alligator,” Moore wrote on Instagram. Moore says the python was found in the Florida Everglades but not in a national park. It was euthanized and turned...

Matthew Concepcion won the prize for the most pythons removed, having hunted a total of 28 snakes. Dustin Crum won the prize for the biggest python removed, having captured a snake measuring 11 feet and 24 inches. A total of 231 invasive Burmese pythons were removed in total from the Florida ecosystem during the 10-day challenge in August, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced. Burmese pythons are an invasive species in Florida. They are native to Asia, but they can also survive in Florida's subtropical climate. The snakes were first introduced to the environment in the 1970s—likely...

The publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 sent shock waves through state agencies. The following year, in 1963, the Arkansas branch of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (which later became the US Fish and Wildlife Service) imported grass carp as an organic treatment for catfish ponds. Carp, with their voracious appetites for plankton, were a chemical-free filter. When the approach proved successful, additional species — black, silver, and bighead carp — were brought from Vietnam and Malaysia, and later from China and Russia as well. Without differentiating among the species, agencies like the US Department of...

The python was caught at the Picayune Strand State Forest just outside of Naples...... python so large that it took three men to carry it out of the Everglades. Florida authorities are unsure about the number of pythons living in the state, but the going estimate is at least 30,000 to 300,000.....are found all over the place, neighborhoods and suburbs,' said Main. Researchers at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida captured this massive female python that turned out to weigh 215 pounds and measure 17.7 feet long – deeming it the largest python ever recorded in Florida—or anywhere outside its native...

(audio) Scientists say they've figured out at least part of North America's invasive, imported fire ant problem by turning a virus that kills them into a weapon. A group of researchers from Tennessee, Florida and North Carolina universities said in their new study, published in the print edition of the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology this month, that they successfully reduced wild Florida populations of imported fire ants. The ants reduce nearby biodiversity, so the team used a virus called Solenopsis invicta virus 3 to kill them. "Laboratory tests have shown that Solenopsis invicta virus 3 may be an effective natural...

Many news stories stress that our ecosystems are under assault by Burmese pythons and Asian carp. This leads people to conclude that it is the less charismatic fauna such as reptiles and fish that are the most threatening of invasive species. Proposed amendments to the Lacey Act that the U.S. House passed Feb. 4 seem to perpetuate this narrative, with a proposed ban on all exotic animal species moving across state lines. (The 122-year-old Lacey Act bans trafficking in illegally taken fish, wildlife, and plants.) But one animal that the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers among the world’s...

The Bureau of Animal Protection has a new director, selected from a pool of candidates that included two animal rights attorneys and a wolf introduction and “humane food choice proponent.” The final choice to lead the bureau, announced today by Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture Kate Greenberg, is Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Niemiec (pronounced “Knee-Mick”) an assistant professor in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University and the director of the Conservation Action Lab. ... The BAP falls under the umbrella of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, but open records requests by The Fence Post indicate governor Jared...

Zebra mussels, those invaders that have wreaked havoc on the Great Lakes, have found a new way to further their damaging spread: pet shops. A citizen's report of an invasive zebra mussel found in an aquarium moss package from a Seattle pet store prompted a U.S. Geological Survey expert on invasive aquatic species to trigger nationwide alerts. That has led to the discovery of the destructive shellfish in pet stores in at least 21 states, from Alaska to Florida and including Michigan. A Seattle pet shop employee on Feb. 25 reported finding an invasive zebra mussel in an ornamental aquarium...

Boat counters on the Northway for the Memorial Day weekend say that 89% of the trailered motorboats traveling north into the Adirondacks on Interstate 87 passed the inspection/decontamination station without stopping, according to the Adirondack Council. It is illegal to transport invasive plants, fish or wildlife from one water body to another in New York. The surest way to avoid contaminating one lake, pond or river with species from another is to have the boat inspected and cleaned by trained personnel. New York has installed a network of inspection stations in and around the Adirondack Park. Boat inspections and decontaminations...

Snake and eggs? Floridians could soon eat invasive pythons Python Bowl kicks off Friday in Florida Everglades Python Bowl kicks off Friday in Florida Everglades FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Donna Kalil estimates she’s eaten a dozen pythons in the last three years or so. That’s not including the python jerky, says Kalil, a python hunter for the South Florida Water Management District. “I eat that several times a week because I take it out with me on python hunts and I eat it out there.” State officials would like to see more people like Kalil putting pythons on the menu...

Wildlife officials are warning that tegu – a South American lizard that can grow up to the size of a dog – continue to spread across the Southeast. The Argentine black-and-white tegu is an invasive animal that has spread to Georgia and South Carolina but has also been reported in Alabama. The lizards, which can grow up to 10 pounds and 4-feet long, are “voracious invaders,” according to National Geographic and, once established in an area, it’s hard to control the spread. Once established tegu will eat just about anything – birds, reptiles, fruits and vegetables. They also like eggs,...