(Andy Reid) The Record (Kitchener, Ontario) 1/10/10
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (McClatchy-Tribune)Fears of a new "super snake" emerging in the Everglades grew this week during a hunt to track South Florida's invasive python population.
A three-day, state-coordinated hunt that started Tuesday had, by Wednesday, netted at least five African rock pythons - including a 14-foot-long female - in a targeted area in Miami-Dade County.
Three of the African rock pythons found were captured, while two got away. One had a circumference of 31 inches, while another was bearing eggs. Those findings add to concerns that the rock python is a new breeding population in the Everglades and not just the result of a few overgrown pets released into the wild, according to the South Florida Water Management District.
In addition, state environmental officials worry that the rock python could breed with the Burmese python, which already has an established foothold in the Everglades. That could lead to a new "super snake," said George Horne, the water district's deputy executive director.
In Africa, rock pythons eat everything from rats to goats. There have been cases of the snakes killing children.
"They are bigger and meaner than the Burmese python," said Deborah Drum, deputy director of the district's restoration sciences department. The concern is that a hybrid python could pose even more risk of large constrictor snakes overwhelming the Everglades where they thrive.
Photograph by Kenneth Krysko Captured and killed in Florida, juvenile Burmese pythons (left), a young African rock python (center), and a larger African rock python lay coiled on a tray in a Unversity of Florida laboratory in late August 2009.
The African snakes typically grow to 20 feet (6 meters) long and have now colonized the U.S. state, as did the Burmese pythons before them, scientists said in September 2009.
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