Predatory Pythons Shift Everglades Ecology

Between fifteen and thirty years ago humans let loose pythons in the Everglades, now the pythons are changing the ecology of the Everglades by killing off the mammals. Other species can wreak havoc on biomes, but in this case it still goes back to those who let the pythons into the system decades ago. Well done.

The snakes, many of which measure 10 to 16 feet, are called Burmese pythons. But make no mistake: Virtually all of the roughly 30,000 living in southern Florida were born in the Everglades. Ecologists now report that populations of mammals have begun plummeting throughout the pythons’ expanding range. And the timing of these mammal losses matches the geographic spread of the snakes, which federal officials believe were initially released into the wild by snake fanciers, probably 15 to 30 years ago.

The next question is: what kind of super predator are we going to release to kill the pythons?