"I can't believe this stuff, I thought the burms were killing everything."



The burms do have some negative impact on the ecosystem, but finding a non-biased report maybe difficult. My favorite review of this is from Barker and Barker.



http://www.vpi.com/sites/vpi.com/files/PP-and-Pythons_BarkerBarker.pdf





"There is one paper that estimates the cost of Burmese

pythons to Florida. Smith et al. (2007) estimated that

one Burmese python feeding in the Everglades did

wildlife damage ranging from $83,992.00 annually up

to $6 million in their worst case scenario. Extending

their worst case scenario, we figure that a population

of Burmese pythons estimated at 30,000 animals then

could “cost” Florida $180 billion in annual wildlife

losses, that being 25% of Florida’s annual GDP. If this

is a true estimate of value, then the total value of the

wildlife in South Florida alone must far exceed the

GDP of the nation, literally tens of trillions of dollars.

Frankly we are embarrassed that persons identifying

themselves as scientists would sign their names to a

paper containing such a ridiculous estimate. We would

argue that that it is equally likely that Burmese

pythons have a net positive effect on the South Florida

ecosystem. A proper evaluation, as is typically done

for laws based on the PP would investigate all

alternatives to the proposed law."

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