A Burmese python more than 16 feet in length and tipping the scales at 140 pounds has been captured at Everglades National Park, evidence of the problem park officials face with the spread of these non-native constrictors.
The female snake was captured Monday after a park staffer came upon it while spraying non-native vegetation.
Park officials say that "many national parks struggle to manage the impacts on resources by invasive exotic animals and plants, but it seems that the Burmese python in the Everglades has captured the attention of the media and the public on this issue, which may help to focus attention on the larger invasive exotic problem that many land managers are grappling with."
"The park has spent the past few weeks emphasizing to the media and the public the importance of not letting unwanted animals or plants loose," notes Everglades spokeswoman Linda Friar. "It is important to focus on what we have learned from this experience to prevent future invasive exotic infestations and improve our ability to react quickly before a species becomes impossible to eradicate."
While pythons have been a problem in Everglades National Park for much of the past decade, the situation garnered heightened media interest recently due to a study blaming the snakes for a "precipitous declines" in mammals that once were commonly seen in parts of the park.
Though members of the park’s staff are working on containment and science to better understand the impacts of this newest exotic in the park, it appears that eradication is currently not possible on a landscape the size of the park (almost 2400 square miles), Ms. Friar wrote in a release.
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Comments
Okay, now that they have it, what will they do with it?
Unfortunately, Sharon, they'll kill it, if they haven't already.
Don't understand why they waste time and manpower cathcing these things. Machete to the neck, let the vultures do the rest. Then move on to the next. It's just way too inefficient to try taking them alive. I think public opinion is mature enough now to handle some snaky death.
Why, why, again~why!! do you need to study one of the largest of its' species again!! leave it alone!! in it's own wild, and uhm~~Protected Habitats of the earth!! Leave *her* alone. You've probably taken her away from the home she knows since birth! Do you care about that??? I must really re-think the way I select my charitable contributions!! I am going to support any/all causes related to Leaving Gods' Kingdom alone! I am all for science, but you already have and have studied the crap out of tens of thousands of specimens you people have already *collected*...
...in my humble opinion
I don't think Mary Wallace gets it! They are not native to the US. I agee with just chopping its head off. Why waste more time and money!
Is it too late for the snake to enter the republican primaries?
Gosh, David, it'd probably be a better choice than anything out there right now.
Ha, ha, they've already established themselves quite well on the other side of the isle. So obvious when they appear on the Republican side but flourish unbridled in the darkside with the complicit media and Liberal non-native fantasies :).