Wildlife researchers have discovered an unconventional method to control invasive Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades. The idea was to use one of the Burmese python’s prey, which is the snake’s favorite food.
According to the Southwest Florida Conservancy, opossums are an important food source for Burmese pythons, a top predator in the Everglades, and have established permanent breeding populations in South Florida, wiping out native animals and severely damaging the ecosystem.
In 2022, researchers discovered this new technology by chance while studying the movements and behavior of small mammals. Researchers fitted opossums and raccoons on Florida’s south coast with GPS collars and found additional side effects. They were also able to track the giant snake even after swallowing the tagged animal whole, LiveScience reported.
“We need everything we can find to remove as many pythons as possible,” Michael Korb, a mammal researcher and curator at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in 2023.
With that in mind, Korb, AJ Sanjar and other researchers expanded their efforts to track and euthanize non-native pythons as part of Florida’s conservation efforts. Here’s how they do it:
How to track an opossum with a GPS collar
Researchers hope to have at least 40 GPS-collared opossums in the conservation program by later this summer. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that it’s almost a given that some of these furry creatures would perish in the food chain of the invasive python’s feeding coils.
The use of live prey as bait has drawn criticism, but scientists insist they are studying natural behavior and that the collars do not limit the mammal’s range or increase risk, but rather use predation patterns as a detection tool.
Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge Manager Jeremy Dixon told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on April 19, “We’re not putting these animals out there and putting them in harm’s way.” “The path to harm is out there. We’re just documenting what’s happening.”
Where Burmese Pythons have been reported in Florida
Burmese pythons in the Sunshine State have caused massive ecosystem collapse in Florida’s Everglades, reducing raccoon populations by 99%, quoll populations by 98%, and bobcat populations by 88%.
The Burmese python’s range is expanding so rapidly that in some areas it is marked by several miles a year, according to a report from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The most prevalent locations in Florida are:
About the invasive Burmese python
Burmese pythons, native to Southeast Asia, were introduced to South Florida through accidental escapes or intentional release of captive animals.
In 1979, the first recorded sighting of a Burmese python in the wild occurred in South Florida’s Everglades National Park. The heaviest python ever captured in Florida was 18 feet long and weighed 215 pounds. It was captured in 2022 by biologists from the Southwest Florida Conservancy in Naples.
How big do pythons get?
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is tracking the length and weight of Burmese pythons after sightings are reported. The longest Burmese python captured in Florida in July 2023 was over 19 feet long.
Since arriving in Florida, the snakes have introduced harmful foreign parasites, reduced the population of medium-sized mammals by more than 90% and altered the ecosystem, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Sources: North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Popular Science, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Naples Daily News, USA TODAY investigation
