Burmese pythons slithering their way north?
chatnoir
headline:
Burmese pythons slithering their way north?
June 24, 2009 - 1:41 PM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AIKEN, S.C. - One by one, seven slithering Burmese pythons were dumped
into a snake pit surrounded by 400 feet of reinforced fence at the
Savannah River Ecology Lab in South Carolina.
As they were released last week by a handful of scientists, some of
the serpents hissed and lunged, baring their fangs. Others coiled up
under the brush. Two slid into a pond in the center of the pit,
disappearing in a snaking trail of bubbles. Some were more than 10
feet long and thicker than a forearm. And for the next year all of
them will call this snake pit - an enclosed area of tangled brush and
trees - home.
Ecologists will track the exotic pythons, all captured in Florida, to
determine if they can survive in climates a few hundred miles to the
north. Using implanted radio transmitters and data recorders, the
scientists will monitor the pythons' body temperature and physical
condition.
The test could show whether the giant imported snakes, which can grow
up to lengths of 25 feet, are able to spread throughout the Southeast.
The fast-growing population of snakes has been invading southern
Florida's ecosystem since 1992, when scientists speculate a bevy of
Burmese pythons was released into the wild after Hurricane Andrew
shattered many pet shop terrariums.
Now scientists fear this invasive species is silently slithering
northward.
"They of course have an impact on native species," said herpetologist
Whit Gibbons, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia and
a member of the python project.
"If you have a big old python eating five times as much as another
species that eats the same prey, it's a competitive thing."
The pythons compete with alligators, among other top predators.
Gibbons said a human is "just another prey item" to a python -
especially a small human. Pythons are constrictor snakes and have been
known to eat people in their native areas of Southeast Asia, he added.
"A 20-foot python, if it grabbed one of us, would bite us and then
within just - instantly - seconds, it would be wrapped all the way
around you and squeezing the life out of you," Gibbons said.
While pythons don't make a habit of attacking people and most aren't
large enough to eat a person, Gibbons called the possibility a
"nightmare." ... (cont)