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Pythons Could Slither North as Climate Warms

Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

The pythons, which can grow more then 20 feet long and weight more than 250 pounds, are strangling and gulping down everything from endangered rodents to deer, panther cubs, opossums and alligators.

"This is a quantum leap" in snake size, said Rodda. "The largest snake in North America is the bull snake or indigo snake, neither of which exceeds nine feet."

Burmese pythons, a subspecies of the Indian python, can take in much larger prey than any North American native snake species.

"Alligators eat them and they eat alligators," Rodda said.

Large pythons are also capable of killing adult humans, he said, although they currently pose the most danger to endangered Key Largo woodrats and rare round-tailed muskrats, he said.

"I'd be very concerned if I were a Key Largo woodrat," Rodda told Discovery News. Both critters are important players in the Everglades ecology, say biologists.

"This makes it that much more difficult to recover these dwindling populations and restore the Everglades," said National Park Service biologist Skip Snow. He also pointed out that releasing pet snakes into the wild is illegal.

USGS researchers are also looking into the potential for similar invasions by nine species of giant constrictors, including boa constrictors and yellow anacondas, which are common in the pet snake trade.

Related Links:

Larry O'Hanlon's blog: Earth Impacts

USGS Fort Collins Science Center