March 7, 2008

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Pythons Warm to the U.S.

Discarded pet Burmese pythons are breeding in the Everglades--and climate change could make a third of the US potential python habitat. Steve Mirsky reports.

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Here’s another reason to stop global warming: to keep the Burmese pythons in Florida.  Burmese pythons have been turning up in south Florida in recent years.  Perhaps you’ve seen the famous photo of a python ripped apart by its efforts to ingest a large alligator.  Apparently people with pythons as pets have been getting rid of the snakes when they get too big by dumping them in the Everglades.  And in 2003, biologists confirmed the presence of a breeding population of the slithering serpents in Everglades National Park.

Which sceeves me out, because I spend a lot of time there.  I’m not afraid of timid alligators, but hungry Burmese pythons give me the willies.  Anyway, the US Geological Survey recently did an analysis of potential temperatures around the country by the end of this century.  And then analyzed where Burmese pythons would be comfortable, based on their home territory, from Pakistan to Indonesia.  The result: pythons could colonize a third of the US.  Did I mention that they can be over 20 feet long and 250 pounds?  Might be the best motivation to do something about climate change.

—Steve Mirsky 

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Pythons Warm to the U.S.