Current areas of the U.S. suitable as Burmese python habitat: 
Year 2100 projected U.S. climate based on global warming models:
IMAGE by Lori Oberhofer shows an American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) attempting to consume a Burmese python. However, Burmese pythons have been recorded consuming American alligators whole.
Burmese pythons or Python molurus bivittatus are very large snakes that kill their prey by asphyxiation, which is achieved through constriction. To prevent its prey from escaping, the python uses specially designed teeth to seize hold of its prey as it’s killed. Afterwards, the prey is swallowed completely.
Burmese pythons are native of Southeast Asia but are established in the Florida Everglades. The invasion comes via the pet trade where the snakes are purchased as curiosities. However, a small Burmese python will grow into a very large Burmese python; therefore, the snakes become too large to handle, since Burmese pythons have been recorded just shy of 30 feet and weighing just over 400 pounds.
To make matters worse, the climatic map of the United States is changing due to milder winters and climate change. As a result, suitable habitat for the Burmese python is expanding. The large constrictor is just one example of many invasive species that have become established via pet owners who release unwanted pets into non-native habitat. The poisonous lionfish is another example, in addition to a slew of other bird, reptile, and plant species. Since invasive species occupy new ecosystems, they have no natural predators. Sometimes other foreign species are carefully introduced to control invasive species; however, biological pest control can fail, because some introduced species that are suppose to control invasive species, may find natives easier to prey upon. Currently, Burmese pythons in Florida are being tracked to understand their movements and biology. In order to stop the pythons from expanding, special sniffer dogs are being used to find the snakes, and “pheromones can potentially be used to lure pythons into traps.”
The impact of invasive species on their new environments can be severe. From ScienceDaily:
Biologists with Everglades National Park confirmed a breeding population of Burmese python in the Florida Everglades in 2003, presumably the result of released pets. Python populations have since been discovered in Big Cypress National Preserve to the north, Miami’s water management areas to the northeast, Key Largo to the southeast, and many state parks, municipalities, and public and private lands in the region….
Burmese pythons have been found to eat endangered Key Largo woodrats and rare round-tailed muskrats. “This makes it that much more difficult to recover these dwindling populations and restore the Everglades,” said park biologist Skip Snow, “and all the more important that pet owners be responsible in their choice of pet and dispose of it properly should they need to. Releasing them into the environment is bad for that pet, bad for native species, and also illegal.”
On the Net: Everglades Burmese Python Project
On the Net: USGS Maps Show Potential Non-Native Python Habitat Along Three U.S. Coasts
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Pingback: INVASIVE SPECIES: Invasive lionfish proliferate in the Atlantic, threatening balanced reef ecosystems « The Conservation Report
Pingback: INVASIVE SPECIES: Burmese pythons, an invasive species in south Florida, could spread to one third of United States « The Conservation Report
A massive invasion by Burmese pythons in Key Largo has prompted newspaper articles and TV news shows discussing exhibitions on how to capture them as they are now endangering pets as well as small endangered species.
Miami Herald 2/1/2009
BY CAMMY CLARK
cclark@MiamiHerald.com
KEY LARGO — In Python Catching 101, a few principles are paramount: Stay out of strike range. Don’t let a 12-footer wrap around your body and squeeze.
And beware of gushing snake poop — a harmless, but smelly, reptile defense mechanism, instructor Jeffrey Fobb warned a group of wanna-be snake catchers.
Armed with the vital new information — plus thick gloves, metal hooks to keep snakes at bay and a blanket to throw over the snakes’ heads — a dozen mostly fearless students last week learned how to capture the enormous natives of Southeast Asia that have begun invading the Florida Keys.
”As far as I know, this is the first class that teaches python wrangling, at least in Florida,” said Alison Higgins, land conservation manager with the Nature Conservancy.
The students joined the ”Python Patrol,” a rapid response program created by the nonprofit conservation organization, working with government agencies, to stop some of the world’s largest snakes from continuing their invasion south into the Keys, where they could wreak havoc on wildlife as they have in the Everglades.
”We’re concerned for the number of endangered species in the Keys, especially the Key Largo cottonmouse and Key Largo woodrat, whose population numbers are very low,” said Art Roybal, a senior biologist at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. “Small mammals like that can be tasty items to a large snake, like a popcorn snack.”
The Python Patrol was formed in 2008 after seven Burmese pythons were found in Key Largo the year before. Pythons had been found in the Keys since the 1980s, but they were thought to be pets that escaped or were let loose.
GROWING PROBLEM
The seven in 2007 were different. Wildlife groups believe they bred in the wild and may have come from the nearby Everglades, over land or by swimming.
The first of the seven was discovered by researchers from Scotland’s University of St. Andrews who were tracking a Key Largo woodrat fitted with a radio-transmitter collar. The signal brought them to a seven-foot python, basking in the sun. A necropsy revealed the collared woodrat, and one other, in the snake’s belly.
”When the pythons came at us fast and furious — bam, bam, bam — we needed to do something,” Higgins said.
The Python Patrol also has an ”Eyes and Ears Team” of safety officers, meter readers, mail carriers, road crews and landscapers trained to identify pythons, which can grow to 23 feet, weigh up to 200 pounds and live for 25 years. Any sightings are called into the python hotline: 1-888-IVE-GOT-1.
”Our goal is, the first time you see a non-native snake is the last time,” Higgins said.
Anyone who calls in a sighting is asked to keep visual contact with the snake while a dispatcher at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office calls the volunteer snake catchers. Rule of thumb: A snake of 10 feet or longer requires backup.
THE BOOT CAMP
The Nature Conservancy is training 25 responders to cover the islands from Key Largo to Key West. This was the second class, held at the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Key Largo.
Fobb, a lieutenant with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Venom Response Team, brought several different types of pythons and an anaconda for his class of wildlife officers, aqueduct employees and mosquito-control workers to practice capturing and bagging.
”I try to bring ones with poor dispositions,” Fobb said. “You don’t want to give people an unrealistic idea of what to expect when you grab a snake in the wild.”
Having kept reptiles for over twenty years, i would like information on volunteer work in catching invasive reptiles and reduce the growing number in the everglades and south miami area.
With thanks
joseph grierson
There is a “Python Patrol.”
http://www.justnews.com/news/18863783/detail.html
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/florida/science/art24101.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95867920
I was wondering if someone could volunteer for a few weeks. I am in college and live in illinois and have hept large snakes since I was a kid. If needed I could come down for a couple of weeks towards the middle of may
OKAY…
I’m going to Key West in May…do I need to bring my snakeboots? When my friend told me about this python issue, I thought she was joking…
1-888-IVE-GOT-1? Got it!
Pingback: Invasive Species, forewarning « Landscape Architeck
More fear mongering based on junk science. *eye roll*