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.
The presence of the Burmese python is negatively affecting the Everglades. The invasion of the python was totally a man-made event. People would buy the Burmese python from exotic pet dealers completely unaware of how big the python could get, which is up to 23 feet long and up to 200 pounds. The Burmese python has chemical receptors in their tongues along with heat sensors on their jaws which allow the animal to hunt for their prey in the night. This helps the python massively because without those abilities it'd
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be much harder for the python to survive because it does have bad eyesight. The article states,” Then, the python coils its long and powerful body around the animal, squeezes until the animal dies, and swallows the animal whole. The python’s unique hinged jaws allow it to swallow an object five times as wide as its own head.” This explains that the python is not only able to eat small animals but also fairly large animals easily. Also, do to the invasion of the Burmese python, the animal life in the Everglades has been changing drastically.
There are an estimated, tens of thousands pythons living in the Everglades. One Burmese python can eat a lot by itself, but then you multiply that by tens of thousands, mass amounts of animal life goes down. The newspaper said,”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 shows that the tens of thousands of Burmese pythons living in the Everglades are having a mass effect on the animal species living in the Everglades. If the Burmese pythons problem does not go away, it may lead to the extinction of some types of animals in the …show more content…
Everglades. The Burmese python’s presence not only affects the local ecosystem but it also changes the lives of humans. Due to the tens of thousands of Burmese pythons living in the Everglades, there has been a challenge set to try and reduce this problem. The advertisement for the python challenge states,”Sign up for the competition to harvest the most Burmese pythons or the longest one and win up to $1,500! Once you sign up and pay a $25 registration fee, you will learn from experts how to identify, handle, and harvest these giant snakes.” This entails that most of the participants in the python challenge will have never seen a real Burmese python, by doing this it basically invites people from all across the country to come down to the Everglades and fire randomly at objects that they think is a Burmese python. This is incredibly dangerous to all participants with risk of being shot or injured by a python themselves. Additionally, the Burmese pythons are posing as a threat to the ecosystem of the Everglades.
By using the pythons big size and massive jaw to swallow animals whole, the tens of thousand pythons are slowly, but surely, destroying the ecosystem in the Everglades. “A growing population of Burmese pythons— many pets turned loose by their owners when they became too big—is threatening the ecosystem of Florida’s Everglades. 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. Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons are estimated to be living in the Everglades, where they thrive in the warm, humid climate.” states a local newspaper article on how the pythons are ruining the
Everglades. In conclusion, the invasiveness of the Burmese pythons is helping the Everglades in no way. The tens of thousands pythons living in the Florida Everglades are killing mass amounts of animal life, affecting people's lives dangerously, and destroying the local ecosystem.
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.
The Everglades used to be a very beautiful tourist attraction, but have been largely affected by the existence of pesticides. However, the majority of pesticides is not specifically targeting the pest only but they also affect non-target plants and animals during their application. The Effect of pesticide runoffs on the Everglades is destroying one Florida’s major tourist attractions due to the cultivation of sugar cane just to mention one of those responsible and creates a loss of natural habitat, water pollution, and threatens existence of wildlife. Many pesticides are not easily degradable; they persist in soil, leach to groundwater and surface water and contaminate wide environment.
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.
The burmese python will eat anything that it can get it’s jaws around which causes many issues for the environment it lives in. According to the article “150,000 Burmese Pythons Threaten Everglades Ecosystem” some 150,000 Burmese pythons have invaded Florida's Everglades, and are threatening the local ecosystem and other wildlife (Iacurci). The pythons compete with other
...s been happening for thousands of years. If deforestation continues all of the planets rainforests will be destroyed within one hundred years. Many negative effects come from deforestation. Climate change, extinction, desertification, flooding, and deaths can all occur from deforestation. People, businesses, and governments can all work together to stop deforestation and save the sloth. Regulations and laws can slow and prevent deforestation. businesses can choose to only receive from less environmentally harmful suppliers. Consumers can buy environmentally friendly materials. Finally voters can vote those into office who wish to stop environmental degradation and save natures most biologically diverse ecosystem and the sloth along with it. We can stop deforestation and help the sloths population grow. With each person working together the sloth can make a comeback.
Did you know the Burmese python can grow to about 23 feet long? Think about finding a snake the size of a telephone pole outside your backyard. Did you also know the Burmese python is also getting close to wiping out raccoons and other animal species, and can also hunt in the dark? So, they cannot just eat animals, but also, humans. Thousands of them are living in the Everglades.
...and food. Their skin is used to make high quality leather. In 1950, American alligators were seriously endangered because humans were over hunting alligators. Then in 1967, the endangered species preservation act stopped the hunting of alligators and the number of alligators quickly rose. Now there are millions of alligators and people are allowed to hunt alligators again. Alligators are losing their habitat because wetlands are being filled to create land for houses, farms, and industries.
The Burmese python is one of the largest snakes in the world. The common Burmese python is tan in color with dark spots and blotches on the back and sides. They have a triangular-shaped head with a dark brown, pyramid wedge pointing towards the nose. The Burmese pythons are semi-aquatic and are found usually found near or in water. They’re also exceptional climbers and can be found in trees. The Burmese python is located in the Everglades, in south Florida, they also have been seen in Naples. They are thought that they’re moving northwest. Burmese pythons have been-been known to prey upon rabbits, large rodents, birds, and even alligators. The Burmese python can live for about 30 years in the wild. Handling these snakes are very dangerous, they say that you should never attempt to handle these yourself if needed to call a professional snake removal company.
An invasive species is defined as a plant, animal or pathogen that is non-native to an environment. With the introduction of an invasive species to an ecosystem it is expected to have adverse effects on the environment. The Burmese python is one non-native species to the Everglades. The constrictors can grow up to 7 meters, weighing up to 90 kilograms and live mostly on ground level or stay submerged in water for up to 30 minutes. This species of snake senses prey through chemical receptors in its tongues and heat-sensors along the jaw due to its poor eyesight. (Society, 2014). Burmese pythons kill prey through suffocating the animal by clamping down on the prey with its sharp teeth and coiling its body around the animal. The Python is able to unhinge its jaw and swallow food whole. Upon introduction into the Everglades ecosystem the snake with its large size poses a huge threat to indigenous species of the wetlands.
If the snakehead becomes established in a body of water it can disrupt the ecosystems predator-prey balance. the have been two accounts of stable breeding populations of Snakehead in both Florida and California, where the climate is warm enough for the Snakeheads to thrive once they are there. Individual Snakeheads have been caught all over the United states, including states as Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Hawaii. The founding in Hawaii is especially troublesome, since Hawaii is already burdened with the plague of numerous other invasive species that threaten to eradicate the flora and fauna of the island. Australia is another warning example that tells us how severe the impact of just a few invasive species can be to an ecosystem in the case of the cane toad . It also a shows us how difficult it can be to eradicate, or even control, a species once it has established a breeding population. Even if the effects have not been as severe as on Hawaii or Australia, the United States mainland has in no way been blessed from problems invasive species throughout history. (Saylor et al 2012) The snakehead can instinctively move to a new body of water through waterway connections or across land once food becomes scarce which puts all waters at risk for invasion. There is always the potential of a new species to bring with it new diseases and parasites and the same is true for any species of snakehead. The snakehead puts all of our endangered species of amphibians, fishes and crustaceans at risk of extinction. There does not need to be a large population of snakeheads to become a problem, even just one snakehead poses a threat because of its voracious feeding behavior. There is also a threat to humans. they have been known to atta...
Burmese pythons are causing large problems in Florida. In the Everglades National Park, it is hard to spot any small or large animals, because the burmese pythons are hunting them. Which is concerning to animal population.
Like the approach that is being taken in Yellowstone. The officials there are going to remove the native fish from the streams, then put a poison called rotenone, to kill all of the invaders. A park in Utah is having a similar problem, but is taking a different approach to remove the invaders. In Red Hills Desert Garden, they will remove the native fish, like in Yellowstone, but instead of poisoning the fish, they will simply drain the water from the streams, letting the remaining invasive fish dry up. Another way to remove fish is introduce new species that can eat them and control them more. This is the case in many Mississippi connected bodies of water. The asian carp have taken over many parts of the Mississippi and a few of the great lakes. In an attempt to control this very invasive fish, the government has began to introduce the alligator gar. The massive, 8 foot, 300 pound fish, are expected to eat many of the rapidly reproducing asian carp. Going back to the brown tree snake, “The federal government is preparing to drop dead mice laced with a snake toxicant into the jungles of Guam in the latest effort to control the thousands of brown tree snakes that have invaded the Pacific island.” (Entertainment News Service). The mice will have streamers attached to catch on trees and will be laced with 80 mg of acetaminophen, which
One of the big causes of extinction or the endangerment of species is foreign species entering a habitat. This species that are not native to the land can disrupt the food web in that community. These species take control of the food web and endanger some of the other species. The native species become endangered and over the course of many years they either adapt to their new way or life, the foreign predator leaves or is killed off due to the different environment, or the species is killed off and becomes extinct. Organizations like the “World Wild Li...