Record-Breaking Burmese Python (17 feet, 7 inches, 87 eggs) Captured by The USGS, B-roll
Record-Breaking Burmese Python (17 feet, 7 inches, 87 eggs) Captured by The USGS, B-rollBig Ol‘ Gal
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Invasive Burmese Pythons in Southern Florida
Active
By Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
September 30, 2024
Invasive species represent a significant threat to global biodiversity and a substantial economic burden to surrounding communities. In the last 40 years, the Burmese python (Python bivittatus) has invaded southern Florida, including Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and other protected lands.
Native to Africa, Asia, and Australia, many python species have found their way to the United States thanks to their popularity in the pet trade. However, by way of an intentional or accidental release, one such popular pet snake species, the Burmese python, was introduced in southern Florida. They have since established a breeding population and are now considered to be one of the most concerning invasive species in Everglades National Park and other protected lands. These ambush predators compete with other native predators for prey, which ranges from mammals to birds to even other reptiles. In fact, severe mammal declines in Everglades National Park have been linked to the Burmese pythons. WARC researchers are engaged in a number of projects aimed to understand invasive python biology and ecology to help inform environmental managers tasked with control and eradication efforts.
What does a Burmese python look like?
What does a Burmese python look like?
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
The Burmese python is a nonvenomous, constricting snake with brown blotches bordered by black down the back. In the wild, Burmese pythons often grow to approximately 16 feet but the largest one recorded in Florida was a female that measured approximately 19 feet.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
How did a giant constrictor snake species, such as the Burmese python, end up in Florida?
How did a giant constrictor snake species, such as the Burmese python, end up in Florida?
For many decades, Burmese pythons were imported to the United States for the pet trade. The initial wild population is believed to have originated from a small number of escaped, or released, pet pythons at the southern end of Everglades National Park in the early 1980s.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Why was the Burmese python able to establish a population in the Everglades?
Why was the Burmese python able to establish a population in the Everglades?
In their native range, Burmese pythons prefer subtropical and tropical climates. Southern Florida offers a similar environment; the vast wilderness provides ample habitats where pythons can hide, such as shallow water, wetlands and brush, and physical structures, including gopher tortoise burrows. The Everglades is also largely isolated from human activity, which compounds detection and removal of a species that is known for its cryptic and secretive nature.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
How many invasive Burmese pythons are in Florida?
How many invasive Burmese pythons are in Florida?
The python population in Florida is expected to be on the scale of tens of thousands of snakes and appears to be growing. On average, Burmese pythons lay 49 eggs in one nest, with an estimated 28.6% of hatchlings surviving to the juvenile stage. However, the clutch size of Burmese pythons increases with body size. Large snakes have been reported to contain as many as 79 to 95 eggs.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Are pythons spreading north of the Everglades?
Are pythons spreading north of the Everglades?
Burmese pythons have been found north of the Everglades through visual sightings and captures; however, due to the cryptic nature of the species, it is challenging to comprehensively delimit their range with these methods. A new technology called environmental DNA (or eDNA) is being used to track the DNA that is shed by the snakes through sloughed scales, saliva, and excrement. Environmental DNA methods have detected pythons in the northern Everglades in Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and even beyond Lake Okeechobee.
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
How have invasive Burmese pythons impacted native species populations in the Greater Everglades?
How have invasive Burmese pythons impacted native species populations in the Greater Everglades?
Burmese pythons consume various mammal and bird species, directly influencing and altering food webs throughout southern Florida. Research has shown that pythons are responsible for diminishing populations of mammals in the Everglades, such as raccoons, opossums, bobcats, rabbits, gray foxes, and white-tailed deer, which have declined by 85 to 100%. Other concerns include the spread of python pathogens and parasites to native species.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
What methods have been used to help manage the spread of the Burmese pythons in southern Florida?
What methods have been used to help manage the spread of the Burmese pythons in southern Florida?
Visual searches: Humans walk or drive on roads to visually detect and capture Burmese pythons. However, pythons have secretive behavior and blend into the environment and limited habitat can be surveyed by road, leading to small detection rates (less than 5%).
Media
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details
Detection dogs: Dogs are estimated to be 2.5 times more efficient at tracking these reptiles than humans alone. However, the use of detection dogs is still limited by a challenging Florida environment and requires trained personnel to handle them.
Traps: Traps designed to capture pythons have been tested but aren't reliable. There are no known attractants or lures that pythons will pursue, which is likely because they are sit-and-wait ambush predators.
Scout snakes: Pythons aggregate during breeding season. An individual snake can be captured, implanted with radio transmitters, and tracked to reveal breeding sites. This technique can help remove additional pythons from the population, including reproductive pythons.
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details
What alternative methods might be considered to help control the spread of Burmese pythons?
What alternative methods might be considered to help control the spread of Burmese pythons?
Environmental DNA: As mentioned above, eDNA is used to detect sloughed DNA from pythons to help determine their ranges, identify travel corridors and even survey locations after eradication efforts. When Burmese pythons are known to be present in an area, visual detection or trapping are successful less than 1% of the time; however, eDNA methods have a rate of detection up to 90%.
Media
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details
•Genetic biocontrol: This technique involves manipulating genetic material to limit an invasive species' ability to thrive. Genetic biocontrol can reduce the need for human intervention efforts and enables species-specific targeting to avoid impacts on non-target wildlife. Studies and tools assessment take years to develop and require strict safety standards, risk assessments, and federal permitting.
Media
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Filter Total Items: 16
Invasive Burmese python research in the Greater Everglades
USGS leads federal research to control the highly invasive Burmese python ( Python bivittatus), which has become firmly established across the Greater Everglades Ecosystem and poses a serious threat to native wildlife. Capable of reaching over 17 feet long, this massive constrictor is believed to be a key factor in the sharp decline of mammal populations in the region. For over a decade...
Multi-year Burmese Python Vital Rate Research Collaborative in the Greater Everglades
USGS researchers will track juvenile Burmese python within Big Cypress National Preserve (BICY) and collect data on snake growth, habitat use, and causes of mortality. Known-fate models will be used to estimate survival and better understand factors that influence survival.
State Partnerships in South Florida
USGS-FORT in partnership with the University of Florida and two state agencies (South Florida Water Management District and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) have initiated a scout snake program to increase the ability to detect and remove Burmese pythons from the interior of the landscape.
Biology, Impacts and Control of Invasive Reptiles in the Everglades
Invasive species are considered to be second only to habitat degradation in terms of negative impacts on the Earth’s ecosystems, and our scientists make up a significant proportion of the global expertise in the rapidly-growing problem of invasive reptiles.
Ecology and Control of Invasive Reptiles in Florida
This project involves development of tools for the detection and control of invasive reptiles in Florida, with an emphasis on pythons and tegu lizards. The goals are to reduce the risk of reptile invasions, investigate early detection methods, maintain rapid response capacity, and understand invasive reptile population biology and ecology to inform management options.
Mentoring the next generation: USGS, NPS, and University of Florida Cooperative Research Unit Invasive Reptile Intern Program
Invasive reptiles like the Burmese python ( Python bivittatus) and black and white tegu lizard ( Tupinambis merianae) are exerting tremendous harm on Everglades ecosystems, but these problematic species present an excellent opportunity to engage the next generation in science. Since entering into an agreement with Everglades National Park in late 2013, the Invasive Species Science Branch of the U...
USGS Coordinated Burmese Python Research Strategy for South Florida (FY21 – FY27)
Wetland and Aquatic Research Center and Fort Collins Science Center are coordinating a long-term, landscape-scale Burmese python research strategy for South Florida.
Using Scout Burmese Pythons and Detector Dogs to Protect Endangered Species in the Florida Keys
WARC researchers are addressing an urgent need to identify specific habitat use of pythons on Key Largo, FL.
Applications of Advanced Tracking and Modeling Tools with Burmese Pythons across South Florida's Landscape
Researchers will determine movement rates and habitat-use patterns of pythons across the South Florida landscape by conducting a telemetry study tracking pythons simultaneously in several locations
Habitat Selection of the Burmese Python in the Florida Everglades
Researchers plotted locations of radio-tagged pythons to create a habitat suitability model.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) Sampling Improves Occurrence and Detection Estimates of Invasive Burmese Pythons and Other Constrictor Snakes in Florida
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is organismal DNA that can be found in the environment. Environmental DNA originates from cellular material shed by organisms (via skin, excrement, etc.) into aquatic or terrestrial environments that can be sampled and monitored using new molecular methods. Such methodology is important for the early detection of invasive species as well as the detection of rare and...
Giant Constrictor Snakes in Florida: A Sizeable Research Challenge
Since the mid-1990s, several species of non-native, giant constrictor snakes, such as Burmese pythons and boa constrictors, have surfaced in localities throughout southern Florida. Several are known or suspected to be breeding and appear to be spreading northward. Increasingly, media and other reports of sightings or encounters with these animals have emphasized the dangers they could impose on...
Record-Breaking Burmese Python (17 feet, 7 inches, 87 eggs) Captured by The USGS, B-roll
The Big Squeeze: Pythons and Mammals in Everglades National Park
The Big Squeeze: Pythons and Mammals in Everglades National ParkThe wet, subtropical wilderness of Everglades National Park is home to a diversity of Floridian wildlife, but one invader is causing severe changes in these native animal populations. Many of the park’s mammals are declining dramatically as a result of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a recent study by U.S. Geological Survey scientists and partners.
The Big Squeeze: Pythons and Mammals in Everglades National Park
The Big Squeeze: Pythons and Mammals in Everglades National ParkThe wet, subtropical wilderness of Everglades National Park is home to a diversity of Floridian wildlife, but one invader is causing severe changes in these native animal populations. Many of the park’s mammals are declining dramatically as a result of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a recent study by U.S. Geological Survey scientists and partners.
Can invasive pythons be eradicated? Can invasive pythons be eradicated?
The odds of eradicating an introduced population of reptiles once it has spread across a large area is very low – pointing to the importance of prevention, early detection, and rapid response. With the Burmese python now distributed across more than a thousand square miles of southern Florida, including all of Everglades National Park and across the southern coast to Rookery Bay National Estuarine...
Are large constrictor snakes such as Burmese pythons able to kill people? What is the risk? Would this be in the wild, or in backyards? Are large constrictor snakes such as Burmese pythons able to kill people? What is the risk? Would this be in the wild, or in backyards?
Human fatalities from non-venomous snakes are very rare, probably averaging one or two per year worldwide. All known constrictor-snake fatalities in the United States are from captive snakes; these are split between deaths of snake owners who were purposefully interacting with their pet and deaths of small children or infants in homes where a snake was kept captive as a pet. There have been no...
Could invasive pythons move into cities? Could invasive pythons move into cities?
In their native ranges, many python and boa species are often found living in suburban and urban areas. In Florida, Boa constrictors and Northern African pythons live in or adjacent to the Miami metropolitan area. As with alligators, the risk of attacks on humans in urban areas is very low.
How have invasive pythons impacted Florida ecosystems? How have invasive pythons impacted Florida ecosystems?
Non-native Burmese pythons have established a breeding population in South Florida and are one of the most concerning invasive species in the area. Pythons compete with native wildlife for food, which includes mammals, birds, and other reptiles. Severe declines in mammal populations throughout Everglades National Park have been linked to Burmese pythons, with the most severe declines in native...
How many Burmese pythons inhabit southern Florida? How many Burmese pythons inhabit southern Florida?
It is incredibly difficult to estimate the true population numbers of Burmese pythons in South Florida. Burmese pythons can survive in and utilize a variety of habitats found in the region, and many of these areas are difficult to access and effectively survey. Conservatively, tens of thousands of invasive Burmese pythons are estimated to be present in the Greater Everglades region. Learn More...
What should I do if I see a python in the wild? What should I do if I see a python in the wild?
If you see a python in the wild – or suspect that a snake is a python or an invasive snake – you should take the same precautions for these constrictor snakes as one would take for any wildlife: avoid interacting with or getting close to them. If you are in Everglades National Park, you can report a python sighting to a park ranger. You can also report the animal via the “Ive Got 1” reporting...
Where are Burmese pythons or other large constrictors distributed in Florida? Where are Burmese pythons or other large constrictors distributed in Florida?
The Burmese python is now distributed across more than a thousand square miles of southern Florida from coast to coast. This includes Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area, Big Cypress National Preserve, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Picayune Strand...
Are there invasive reptiles other than Burmese pythons in the United States that people should be concerned about? Are there invasive reptiles other than Burmese pythons in the United States that people should be concerned about?
Free-ranging, non-native reptiles representing dozens of species from around the world escape or are illegally released in the United States every year. Many of these species fail to establish reproductive populations, but some are successful. Florida is a major transportation hub and has a climate that is suitable for many invasive species across taxonomic groups. Due to the suitable climate, and...
Can Burmese Pythons swim from the Everglades to the Florida Keys? Can Burmese Pythons swim from the Everglades to the Florida Keys?
A number of Burmese pythons have been found on Key Largo, and a few in the Lower Keys. Because pythons regularly escape or are released from captivity, it can be difficult to determine whether a snake encountered in the Keys arrived there by swimming from the mainland or was a former captive pet on the island. Given the python’s ability to disperse via salt water, expansion into neighboring...
Invasive species represent a significant threat to global biodiversity and a substantial economic burden to surrounding communities. In the last 40 years, the Burmese python (Python bivittatus) has invaded southern Florida, including Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and other protected lands.
Native to Africa, Asia, and Australia, many python species have found their way to the United States thanks to their popularity in the pet trade. However, by way of an intentional or accidental release, one such popular pet snake species, the Burmese python, was introduced in southern Florida. They have since established a breeding population and are now considered to be one of the most concerning invasive species in Everglades National Park and other protected lands. These ambush predators compete with other native predators for prey, which ranges from mammals to birds to even other reptiles. In fact, severe mammal declines in Everglades National Park have been linked to the Burmese pythons. WARC researchers are engaged in a number of projects aimed to understand invasive python biology and ecology to help inform environmental managers tasked with control and eradication efforts.
What does a Burmese python look like?
What does a Burmese python look like?
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
The Burmese python is a nonvenomous, constricting snake with brown blotches bordered by black down the back. In the wild, Burmese pythons often grow to approximately 16 feet but the largest one recorded in Florida was a female that measured approximately 19 feet.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
How did a giant constrictor snake species, such as the Burmese python, end up in Florida?
How did a giant constrictor snake species, such as the Burmese python, end up in Florida?
For many decades, Burmese pythons were imported to the United States for the pet trade. The initial wild population is believed to have originated from a small number of escaped, or released, pet pythons at the southern end of Everglades National Park in the early 1980s.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Why was the Burmese python able to establish a population in the Everglades?
Why was the Burmese python able to establish a population in the Everglades?
In their native range, Burmese pythons prefer subtropical and tropical climates. Southern Florida offers a similar environment; the vast wilderness provides ample habitats where pythons can hide, such as shallow water, wetlands and brush, and physical structures, including gopher tortoise burrows. The Everglades is also largely isolated from human activity, which compounds detection and removal of a species that is known for its cryptic and secretive nature.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
How many invasive Burmese pythons are in Florida?
How many invasive Burmese pythons are in Florida?
The python population in Florida is expected to be on the scale of tens of thousands of snakes and appears to be growing. On average, Burmese pythons lay 49 eggs in one nest, with an estimated 28.6% of hatchlings surviving to the juvenile stage. However, the clutch size of Burmese pythons increases with body size. Large snakes have been reported to contain as many as 79 to 95 eggs.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Are pythons spreading north of the Everglades?
Are pythons spreading north of the Everglades?
Burmese pythons have been found north of the Everglades through visual sightings and captures; however, due to the cryptic nature of the species, it is challenging to comprehensively delimit their range with these methods. A new technology called environmental DNA (or eDNA) is being used to track the DNA that is shed by the snakes through sloughed scales, saliva, and excrement. Environmental DNA methods have detected pythons in the northern Everglades in Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and even beyond Lake Okeechobee.
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
How have invasive Burmese pythons impacted native species populations in the Greater Everglades?
How have invasive Burmese pythons impacted native species populations in the Greater Everglades?
Burmese pythons consume various mammal and bird species, directly influencing and altering food webs throughout southern Florida. Research has shown that pythons are responsible for diminishing populations of mammals in the Everglades, such as raccoons, opossums, bobcats, rabbits, gray foxes, and white-tailed deer, which have declined by 85 to 100%. Other concerns include the spread of python pathogens and parasites to native species.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
What methods have been used to help manage the spread of the Burmese pythons in southern Florida?
What methods have been used to help manage the spread of the Burmese pythons in southern Florida?
Visual searches: Humans walk or drive on roads to visually detect and capture Burmese pythons. However, pythons have secretive behavior and blend into the environment and limited habitat can be surveyed by road, leading to small detection rates (less than 5%).
Media
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details
Detection dogs: Dogs are estimated to be 2.5 times more efficient at tracking these reptiles than humans alone. However, the use of detection dogs is still limited by a challenging Florida environment and requires trained personnel to handle them.
Traps: Traps designed to capture pythons have been tested but aren't reliable. There are no known attractants or lures that pythons will pursue, which is likely because they are sit-and-wait ambush predators.
Scout snakes: Pythons aggregate during breeding season. An individual snake can be captured, implanted with radio transmitters, and tracked to reveal breeding sites. This technique can help remove additional pythons from the population, including reproductive pythons.
Media
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details
What alternative methods might be considered to help control the spread of Burmese pythons?
What alternative methods might be considered to help control the spread of Burmese pythons?
Environmental DNA: As mentioned above, eDNA is used to detect sloughed DNA from pythons to help determine their ranges, identify travel corridors and even survey locations after eradication efforts. When Burmese pythons are known to be present in an area, visual detection or trapping are successful less than 1% of the time; however, eDNA methods have a rate of detection up to 90%.
Media
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details
•Genetic biocontrol: This technique involves manipulating genetic material to limit an invasive species' ability to thrive. Genetic biocontrol can reduce the need for human intervention efforts and enables species-specific targeting to avoid impacts on non-target wildlife. Studies and tools assessment take years to develop and require strict safety standards, risk assessments, and federal permitting.
Media
Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. View Media Details
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Filter Total Items: 16
Invasive Burmese python research in the Greater Everglades
USGS leads federal research to control the highly invasive Burmese python ( Python bivittatus), which has become firmly established across the Greater Everglades Ecosystem and poses a serious threat to native wildlife. Capable of reaching over 17 feet long, this massive constrictor is believed to be a key factor in the sharp decline of mammal populations in the region. For over a decade...
Multi-year Burmese Python Vital Rate Research Collaborative in the Greater Everglades
USGS researchers will track juvenile Burmese python within Big Cypress National Preserve (BICY) and collect data on snake growth, habitat use, and causes of mortality. Known-fate models will be used to estimate survival and better understand factors that influence survival.
State Partnerships in South Florida
USGS-FORT in partnership with the University of Florida and two state agencies (South Florida Water Management District and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) have initiated a scout snake program to increase the ability to detect and remove Burmese pythons from the interior of the landscape.
Biology, Impacts and Control of Invasive Reptiles in the Everglades
Invasive species are considered to be second only to habitat degradation in terms of negative impacts on the Earth’s ecosystems, and our scientists make up a significant proportion of the global expertise in the rapidly-growing problem of invasive reptiles.
Ecology and Control of Invasive Reptiles in Florida
This project involves development of tools for the detection and control of invasive reptiles in Florida, with an emphasis on pythons and tegu lizards. The goals are to reduce the risk of reptile invasions, investigate early detection methods, maintain rapid response capacity, and understand invasive reptile population biology and ecology to inform management options.
Mentoring the next generation: USGS, NPS, and University of Florida Cooperative Research Unit Invasive Reptile Intern Program
Invasive reptiles like the Burmese python ( Python bivittatus) and black and white tegu lizard ( Tupinambis merianae) are exerting tremendous harm on Everglades ecosystems, but these problematic species present an excellent opportunity to engage the next generation in science. Since entering into an agreement with Everglades National Park in late 2013, the Invasive Species Science Branch of the U...
USGS Coordinated Burmese Python Research Strategy for South Florida (FY21 – FY27)
Wetland and Aquatic Research Center and Fort Collins Science Center are coordinating a long-term, landscape-scale Burmese python research strategy for South Florida.
Using Scout Burmese Pythons and Detector Dogs to Protect Endangered Species in the Florida Keys
WARC researchers are addressing an urgent need to identify specific habitat use of pythons on Key Largo, FL.
Applications of Advanced Tracking and Modeling Tools with Burmese Pythons across South Florida's Landscape
Researchers will determine movement rates and habitat-use patterns of pythons across the South Florida landscape by conducting a telemetry study tracking pythons simultaneously in several locations
Habitat Selection of the Burmese Python in the Florida Everglades
Researchers plotted locations of radio-tagged pythons to create a habitat suitability model.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) Sampling Improves Occurrence and Detection Estimates of Invasive Burmese Pythons and Other Constrictor Snakes in Florida
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is organismal DNA that can be found in the environment. Environmental DNA originates from cellular material shed by organisms (via skin, excrement, etc.) into aquatic or terrestrial environments that can be sampled and monitored using new molecular methods. Such methodology is important for the early detection of invasive species as well as the detection of rare and...
Giant Constrictor Snakes in Florida: A Sizeable Research Challenge
Since the mid-1990s, several species of non-native, giant constrictor snakes, such as Burmese pythons and boa constrictors, have surfaced in localities throughout southern Florida. Several are known or suspected to be breeding and appear to be spreading northward. Increasingly, media and other reports of sightings or encounters with these animals have emphasized the dangers they could impose on...
Record-Breaking Burmese Python (17 feet, 7 inches, 87 eggs) Captured by The USGS, B-roll
Record-Breaking Burmese Python (17 feet, 7 inches, 87 eggs) Captured by The USGS, B-rollBig Ol‘ Gal
By
The Big Squeeze: Pythons and Mammals in Everglades National Park
The Big Squeeze: Pythons and Mammals in Everglades National ParkThe wet, subtropical wilderness of Everglades National Park is home to a diversity of Floridian wildlife, but one invader is causing severe changes in these native animal populations. Many of the park’s mammals are declining dramatically as a result of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a recent study by U.S. Geological Survey scientists and partners.
The Big Squeeze: Pythons and Mammals in Everglades National Park
The Big Squeeze: Pythons and Mammals in Everglades National ParkThe wet, subtropical wilderness of Everglades National Park is home to a diversity of Floridian wildlife, but one invader is causing severe changes in these native animal populations. Many of the park’s mammals are declining dramatically as a result of invasive Burmese pythons, according to a recent study by U.S. Geological Survey scientists and partners.
Can invasive pythons be eradicated? Can invasive pythons be eradicated?
The odds of eradicating an introduced population of reptiles once it has spread across a large area is very low – pointing to the importance of prevention, early detection, and rapid response. With the Burmese python now distributed across more than a thousand square miles of southern Florida, including all of Everglades National Park and across the southern coast to Rookery Bay National Estuarine...
Are large constrictor snakes such as Burmese pythons able to kill people? What is the risk? Would this be in the wild, or in backyards? Are large constrictor snakes such as Burmese pythons able to kill people? What is the risk? Would this be in the wild, or in backyards?
Human fatalities from non-venomous snakes are very rare, probably averaging one or two per year worldwide. All known constrictor-snake fatalities in the United States are from captive snakes; these are split between deaths of snake owners who were purposefully interacting with their pet and deaths of small children or infants in homes where a snake was kept captive as a pet. There have been no...
Could invasive pythons move into cities? Could invasive pythons move into cities?
In their native ranges, many python and boa species are often found living in suburban and urban areas. In Florida, Boa constrictors and Northern African pythons live in or adjacent to the Miami metropolitan area. As with alligators, the risk of attacks on humans in urban areas is very low.
How have invasive pythons impacted Florida ecosystems? How have invasive pythons impacted Florida ecosystems?
Non-native Burmese pythons have established a breeding population in South Florida and are one of the most concerning invasive species in the area. Pythons compete with native wildlife for food, which includes mammals, birds, and other reptiles. Severe declines in mammal populations throughout Everglades National Park have been linked to Burmese pythons, with the most severe declines in native...
How many Burmese pythons inhabit southern Florida? How many Burmese pythons inhabit southern Florida?
It is incredibly difficult to estimate the true population numbers of Burmese pythons in South Florida. Burmese pythons can survive in and utilize a variety of habitats found in the region, and many of these areas are difficult to access and effectively survey. Conservatively, tens of thousands of invasive Burmese pythons are estimated to be present in the Greater Everglades region. Learn More...
What should I do if I see a python in the wild? What should I do if I see a python in the wild?
If you see a python in the wild – or suspect that a snake is a python or an invasive snake – you should take the same precautions for these constrictor snakes as one would take for any wildlife: avoid interacting with or getting close to them. If you are in Everglades National Park, you can report a python sighting to a park ranger. You can also report the animal via the “Ive Got 1” reporting...
Where are Burmese pythons or other large constrictors distributed in Florida? Where are Burmese pythons or other large constrictors distributed in Florida?
The Burmese python is now distributed across more than a thousand square miles of southern Florida from coast to coast. This includes Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area, Big Cypress National Preserve, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Picayune Strand...
Are there invasive reptiles other than Burmese pythons in the United States that people should be concerned about? Are there invasive reptiles other than Burmese pythons in the United States that people should be concerned about?
Free-ranging, non-native reptiles representing dozens of species from around the world escape or are illegally released in the United States every year. Many of these species fail to establish reproductive populations, but some are successful. Florida is a major transportation hub and has a climate that is suitable for many invasive species across taxonomic groups. Due to the suitable climate, and...
Can Burmese Pythons swim from the Everglades to the Florida Keys? Can Burmese Pythons swim from the Everglades to the Florida Keys?
A number of Burmese pythons have been found on Key Largo, and a few in the Lower Keys. Because pythons regularly escape or are released from captivity, it can be difficult to determine whether a snake encountered in the Keys arrived there by swimming from the mainland or was a former captive pet on the island. Given the python’s ability to disperse via salt water, expansion into neighboring...