By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square
Florida has achieved another first: a record of more than 20 tons of invasive Burmese pythons have been removed by one conservation group alone.
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced a record-breaking Burmese python research and removal season of 6,300 pounds of invasive snake.
Related: A bottlenose dolphin? Or Tursiops truncatus? Why biologists give organisms those strange, unpronounceable names.
The conservancy tracks male pythons to locate reproductive pythons during the breeding season, which goes from November through April. It monitors them across a 200-square-mile area of public and private land stretching from Naples through the Western Everglades.
With this total, the conservancy has now removed more than 20 tons of Burmese pythons from a 200-square-mile area in Southwest Florida since 2013.
“We have been on the front line of the invasive python battle for more than a decade,” Conservancy Science Project Manager and wildlife biologist Ian Bartoszek said. “Removing more than 40,000 pounds of snake, carried out through some of Florida’s unrelenting wildlife habitats, is a heavy-lifting assignment. But, through years of dedicated research, we’ve developed science-based methods to track this apex predator more effectively and mitigate its damage to our native wildlife population.”
Burmese pythons, native to Southeast Asia, are an invasive species primarily found in South Florida. They are capable of consuming more than 100% of their body mass, eat more than 85 species, including deer, bobcats, foxes, rabbits, birds, alligators, and other reptiles, cats, dogs, and a range of native wildlife.
One of the largest snakes in the world, adult Burmese pythons caught in Florida average between 6 and 9 feet. Conservancy staff caught the largest ones in Florida and on record. They caught the largest female python ever documented, measuring 18 feet long and weighing 215 pounds, and the largest male python on record, measuring 16 feet and weighing 140 pounds.
Historically, the Burmese python population was primarily found in the Everglades National Park in Miami-Dade County. Their established habitat now stretches south of Lake Okeechobee to Key Largo and from western Broward County west to Collier County, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says.
“The Burmese python is decimating native wildlife across their invaded range. Here at the Conservancy, we also rehabilitate thousands of injured native animals in the von Arx Wildlife Hospital and release them back into the wild each year. The python team’s work of reducing the local population of the invasive snake allows our native wildlife safer conditions to recover,” conservancy president and CEO Rob Moher said.
The conservancy has protected water, land, and wildlife in Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Hendry, and Glades counties and works with multiple agencies.
Since 2013, it’s stopped an additional 20,000 python eggs from hatching, it says. One female can lay between 50 and 100 eggs at a time.
Since Gov. Ron DeSantis has been in office, the legislature has dedicated significant resources to Everglades restoration, including record-level funding for eradicating the invasive Burmese python.
The Florida Python Challenge, which has several requirements, including online training, encourages the public to catch pythons in eight designated locations. The 10-day event this year will take place from July 11 to 20.
Opportunities to remove the invasive species are year-round. The FWC has published an interactive map featuring 32 commission-managed lands where hunting non-native reptiles, such as pythons, is allowed without a license or permit. It also provides instructions and safety information.
The commission also encourages members of the public to report python sightings by calling the Exotic Species Hotline at 888-Ive-Got1 (888-483-4681), using a free IveGot1 mobile app, or online at IveGot1.org.
