Nobody knows how to stop reptiles: escaped pythons captured Florida

Some pets manage to not only escape into the wild, but also adapt perfectly in the wild. In some cases, they become a threat to local representatives of the fauna, and sometimes they can cause discontent among the inhabitants of the region. For example, it happened with raccoons and a South American emu in Europe, and recently a similar problem was encountered in the US state of Florida, where pythons “escaped” into the wild.

The dark tiger python lives under natural conditions on the territory of mainland Southeast Asia, as well as on some islands of Indonesia. In the wild, the size of adults reaches 3-5 meters in length, but there are cases when dark tiger pythons kept in captivity reached a length of more than 5.5 meters. These are non-poisonous snakes that are quite calm in nature and are very popular among Americans as pets.

But excessive popularity led to an unexpected problem: pythons captured Florida. "Runaway" or specially released into the wild (and there were such cases among not very responsible pet owners), pythons quickly adapted to the tropical climate of Florida. Moreover, as zoologists managed to find out, part of the dark tiger pythons carries the genes of another closely related species - the tiger python, which also lives in Southeast Asia. Experts believe that hybridization could occur even in the homeland of snakes or hybrid animals could be mistakenly brought to the United States. Hybrid animals often have high adaptive abilities, are more resilient and resilient, and can also have a number of other advantages compared to their parents.

A difficult situation has developed within the Everglades National Park, which is located in the state of Florida. According to experts, the number of dark tiger pythons, as well as their possible hybrids, in the park has reached 150 thousand. Such a number of dark tiger pythons caused a sharp decrease in the number of mammals and birds nesting in the reserve. In addition, according to Everglades employees, there have been several cases of attacks by pythons on young alligators.

The dark tiger python was recognized as an invasive species, that is, a species threatening the local representatives of the fauna. A special program was developed for his capture, but so far these measures have not brought any tangible effect. It is interesting that in their homeland, in the tropics of Asia, this species has the status of being in a vulnerable position, and its number is gradually declining.