There are invaders among us, they are not alien or human, but Burmese Pythons. Arguably one of the most beautiful and unique parts of nature remaining in the United States is rapidly being destroyed by the Burmese Python. It has enormously impacted the Everglades in a negative way. The beautiful indigenous animals have quickly disappeared and new predators surface as we dig deeper into the Everglades. This fierce animal is a constrictor, squeezing the life out of its prey. The Pythons tight grip sucks the life out of its prey and swallows it whole. “It sounded like a joke when news reported Burmese Pythons were invading the Everglades in 2000” states USA Today. Pythons are slithering their way through the Florida Everglades with a big appetite and a similar habitat as their original home in Asia. Now, they have marked their territory permanently and there may be nothing scientists can do in order to prevent this issue.
How are Burmese pythons get here? Many people believe that they were brought from other countries like Southeast Asia and were kept as pets when brought to the U.S. When the pythons became too big for the owner to handle they would release them into the wild. Not only that, but the pythons were also released from animal warehouses in Miami, Florida, when a devastating hurricane hit. Many of the shipments that are sent into Miami with wildlife are sent to such animal warehouses. 12,000 shipments of wildlife are sent to Miami every year. Including in the last four years alone 140,000 wild caught pythons were shipped to these wildlife facilities for studies. After the hurricane hit the warehouse, the pythons slithered their way to the Everglades where a variety of food could be obtained and where hiding places could ...
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... different states participate in this challenge. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation has sponsored these events to educate the public of this scarce problem. This is also a great way to help reduce the large number of slithering beasts in the Everglades. Another company by the name of U.S. Fish and Wildlife service has banned shipments of pythons to the U.S. because of this growing issue. The company estimated that nearly 99,000 snakes were brought over anywhere between 1996-2006. The python challenges gets the public and python permit holders to capture Burmese and allow the person with the most captured to earn a prize. Researchers may have come up with this plan, but its going to take more than that to effect this fast growing population. Scientists have not only become concerned of Pythons wrecking havoc on the Everglades but them spreading to other areas.
As if there weren’t enough problems for scientists trying to save the Great Lakes Eco System. Many non-native species have entered the eco system and many of them are harmful. Every species in itself has played a role in the eco system. These non-native species make it increasingly difficult for the Great Lakes Eco System to be regulated.
This can get expensive and unsanitary. These non-venomous snakes are tricky to care for and often illegally released into the wild. This dumping, importation for the exotic pet trade, and escaped snakes from Hurricane Andrew is resulting in an established wild population of Burmese pythons in South Florida. II. Facts Native to the jungles and to the grassy marshes of Southeast Asia, the Burmese pythons are said to have been first reported in the Everglades in 2000.
Unable to handle their giant snakes, and unable to find new homes for them, some owners illegally release them into the wild. They are also an invasive species, which means that they are not constrained by natural factors as much as they were in their native habitat. Invasive species have the potential to harm their new environments. The release of Burmese pythons in South Florida is especially troublesome because the subtropical climate and the vast undisturbed habitats of the Everglades enable the species to thrive.
Known as Pterois Volitans in the animal kingdom, also called the red lionfish, is a sight to behold in the tropical waters as they swim like an underwater butterfly in the sea. In waters not native to their origin, as they are from the Pacific and have predators that will have them for a snack. Invasive to the Caribbean Sea they have rapidly reached the Gulf of Mexico and far south, spreading to parts of South America. The lionfish has become a persistent pest that’s more trouble than what it appears to be, attractive yet deceptive with a striking pattern of white and red stripes. In the New York Times article, A Call to Action… and Even Rodeos, scientists say that, “from 2005 onward, lionfish have become the most numerous nonnative invasive species in the world.” The average pound fish is one of nature’s clever creations, a venomous foe with spines and an infinite appetite that reproduce quickly. Invasive species are notorious because they have no or almost nonexistent natural predators and they are adapt to their new home very well. The biological adaptations of this fish has caused both ecological and economical mayhem, serious measures have been taken up to control their population as well as to protect our coral reefs.
The invasive species, the Burmese Python has done irreparable damage to the Everglades National Park in Florida. A steady decline in mammals has been observed since the introduction of Burmese pythons occurred. Burmese pythons were first introduced into the United States as part of the pet trade which then led to the escape or intentional release out into the wild. The first notation of these species arriving was in the year 2000. However, within just eleven years this invasive species had done such a large amount of damage to Florida’s Ecosystem that many species had gone almost completely extinct.
Then, at the right moment, the panther attacked the deer. With bounds at over twenty feet at a time, the panther exploded out of the underbrush, pouncing on the deer and forcing it to the ground. Within fifteen seconds, the panther stood breathing heavily over its unfortunate victim of life and death. This scene has been going on for many years, the battle of predator and prey, but now the new predators are humans, almost virtually wiping out the entire population, leaving only an estimated 30 - 50 Florida panthers left. Should the environmental leaders of Florida protect the Florida panther?
Within the state of Florida there are dozens of individualized, non-profit organizations making an effort to help the local wildlife. The local land and marine wildlife includes birds, geckos, frogs, snakes, panthers, manatees, sea turtles, fishes, sharks, corals, lizards and many, many more. Florida State is located on the Southeastern tip of the United States providing a unique opportunity for conservation of salt-water animals. While there are animal conservation efforts taking place all over the world, this essay will focus on two animal species that humans are specifically trying to save in Florida State. The two main animal species of focus are manatees and sea turtles.
The Burmese python’s presence in the Everglades is doing nothing but negatively affecting the world. In addition to it wiping out mass amounts of animal life, the Burmese python is affecting the local ecosystem, and lives of humans.
Myers, V. (1994, December). The Everglades: Researchers take a new approach to an old problem. Sea Frontiers, 40, 15-16.
The piece I chose to do my literary analysis on was the article, The Truth About Invasive Species, written by Alan Burdick. The article states that invasive species are all around us, but the area with the most prominent amount is the suburbs of Miami. It goes into detail about how abundant invasive species are in this area. Most people who would see a strange animal in their lawn or area would be bemused, however for the people of Southern Florida, this is a recurring scene. Burdick states that “virtually everyone in the South Florida, including Hardwick, has a neighbor with a backyard menagerie of lucrative critters on hold for resale”. Burdick describes both how an invasive species is introduced into an ecosystem, and the impact the have on other species upon their arrival.
Well to start, people who wanted these pythons as their pets probably didn't know how big they were going to turn out. The owners didn't realize that the python was going to get that big, so they had to let it go to the wild. Owners were probably shocked when they saw how big the pythons got. "people casually bought them when they were maybe a foot long." […] "Unable to deal with these giants, owners often dumped them wherever seemed feasible." As known some researchers believe that the Hurricane Andrew made these pythons spread more throughout the U.S and the Everglades. Native people from China brought them here and it should've stayed near Southern China. Also an exotic pet dealer that held almost 900 Burmese Python was destroyed and many of them escaped from the warehouse to the Everglades and into the
The Florida Manatee’s popular marine species in the tropical environment of Florida are currently considered an “endangered species”. The ecology (the relationships between living organisms and their interactions with their natural or developed environment), for the manatee (trichechus manatus), requires and is generally restricted to the inland and coastal waters of peninsular Florida during the winter, when they shelter in and/or near warm-water springs, heated industrial effluents, and other warm water sites (as stated in Research Gate (1997) Hartman 1979, Lefebvre et al). The Florida (West Indian) Manatee, An Endangered Species, has no known predators other than humans; in the past, humans hunted
Pythons eat pretty much everything in sight, and since they are large, they eat a lot. “With no natural predators, these eating machines appear to be wiping out huge numbers of opossums, raccoons, and bobcats, as well as many bird species.” This is important to the reason of how the changes in the population of local animals because the population has been going down. Also stated in the article, “Think of a telephone pole, and then imagine a snake as big around the middle as that pole. That’s the Burmese python.” Since this snake is so huge, it can easily eat just about anything in sight, and it will eat a lot of whatever it finds, so the population goes way down.
Parry, Wynne. (Sept. 23Rd , 2011) Exotic Pets Turning Invasive, Threatning Florida. Tech Media. Retrieved March 10th 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/16204-florida-invasive-reptiles-amphibians.html
United States. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2010. Web. .