Follow
A study conducted on the Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park, Florida can help in controlling the invasive Burmese python’s population in Florida, native Southern and Southeast Asian habitat.
The study is headed by U.S. Geological Survey.
It is the largest tracking study ever conducted on the largest and longest Burmese pythons, which can grow to almost 20 feet in length
The study reveals the Burmese python’s home range, and found that the snakes share their habitat with native snakes.
Kristen Hart, a USGS research ecologist, and lead author of the study said, “These high-use areas may be optimal locations for control efforts and further studies on the snakes’ potential impacts on native wildlife, understanding habitat-use patterns of invasive species can aid resource managers in designing appropriately timed and scaled management strategies to help control their spread.”
For the study researchers have caught 19 wild snakes and attached a radio and GPS tags on them, and then released them in the wild again.
They have been tracking the pythons for 5,119 days.
The study revealed that the average home range of pythons is an area of about nine square miles, and they prefer coastal locales, sloughs and tree islands within Everglades.
Researchers also found that the pythons hunt for wildlife, then get engaged in mating and give birth to new ones. Their life is all about food and sex.
Burmese pythons are large bodied constricting snakes; they live as long as 25 years.
It is one of the five largest species of snake in the world.
The python invasion began in 1992, when the Hurricane Andrew has demolished a breeding facility, which allowed number of reptiles to escape.
The pet trade is also believed to have allowed some snakes to escape in wild.
The presence of pythons in Florida has led to decline in native species of small mammals and birds, which is the staple of python diet.
There are 300,000 Burmese pythons in Florida, according to a statistical study, and this number can never be completely eradicated.
It is very difficult to detect Burmese pythons because of cryptic coloration.
Burmese pythons exhibit the color of the palm trees, mud and detritus and leaves and they are very quite also.
So there has been limited success to scale back the python population.
The findings of the study are published in journal Animal Biotelemetry.
