I find the reports of a narrow DNA profile for the Everglades pythons very interesting. Likewise the report of no morph Burmese in the Everglades.

Unfortunately it's not that hard to believe that many burms escape or are released in South Florida. But if it's true that the reproducing population isn't broadening its genetic background than it might be that they are descendent from a line of Burmese pythons particularly suited to surviving at the edge of the tropics. Maybe 99% of the Burmese pythons in captivity wouldn’t be able to survive even one winter in the Everglades.

Did the line in the Glades come from the perfect storm of the right genetics and a big mass release (hurricane or otherwise)? Maybe they are the Argentine boas of the Indian Python complex? Will also be interesting to hear (eventually) how many of the tracked Everglades line survived this winter. There have been reliable reports of some surviving Burmese pythons but if a large percentage of the trackers didn’t make it there is still some hope of a hard winter wiping them out completely. It would at least be a good indication that they will not be able to make it even to the middle of Florida much less cover 1/3 of the US.

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]