New Report Shows It May Be “Impossible” To Eradicate The Florida Burmese Python Population
The invasive Florida Burmese Python has been wreaking havoc in the Everglades for decades. And now they’ve been branching out much further. It’s not an uncommon sight for one to show up in East Naples, but they’ve made it up to Fort Myers. And Lake Okeechobee. And that spread shows no signs of changing. A new report from the United States Geological Survey shows that “eradication of the population across the landscape is not possible with existing tools”. So no amount of Python Hunters searching the Everglades is going to be able to finish the job.
It’s not for lack of trying, but Burmese Python’s are hard to find. “Extremely low individual python detection rates hamper our ability to both estimate python abundance and expand control tools across the extensive natural landscape” says USGS Research Ecologist Kristen Hart, an author of the publication. And they aren’t just hiding, they are spreading into other parts of Florida. Including to us here in Southwest Florida.
You can see the snakes have made it up to Lake Okeechobee, over to Fort Myers, Cape Coral, even down to Key Largo.
The spread will likely continue.
Now, there are people working for the state of Florida full time that hunt these pythons. Also, the Florida Python Hunting Challenge does an amazing job of clearing out some of these monsters. Last year, 231 snakes were killed. But as the study shows, they’ll never get them all.
Is there another way? Maybe “Researchers at USGS and partner institutions are exploring potential novel techniques such as genetic biocontrol.” The term “genetic biocontrol” refers to techniques that alter the genetic material of an organism to control invasive species in the environment. Could it work? So far the technology is being used on fruit flies. “the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR to produce male fruit flies that are sterile. When they mate with females in the wild, they produce no offspring.”
I’m not a specialist in CRISPR so I don’t even know if it’s possible to use the biocontrol technology on snakes. However, another way that’s being used is putting GPS collars on possums and raccoons. After the animal is eaten, they can follow the signal back to the snake. Again with this method, they’ll never get them all.
We’ll just have to deal with this invasive Florida Burmese Python being a part of our state. Just like green iguanas, Brazilian pepper trees & snow birds.
Everglades Gone Wild: 18 Foot Python Eats 5 Foot Alligator
