lectronic Newsletter That Reports on The Latest News on Herpetological Conservation and Science Volume #8 Issue # 10, Wednesday, February 22, 2008 (Burmese Python and USGS issue)
Publisher/Editor- Allen Salzberg
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Table of Contents

1) Comments From The Editor On The USGS Burmese Python Press Release And Its Aftermath.
2) USGS Maps Show Potential Non-Native Python Habitat Along Three U.S. Coasts
2/20/2008 10:45:00 Press Release USGS
3) New Threat To Our Way Of Life (San Francisco Chronicle)
4) Pythons Could Thrive -- Beyond South Florida (Miami Herald)
5) Burmese Pythons May Be Headed Up To Georgia (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) ____________________________________________________________________
1) Comments From The Editor On The USGS Burmese Python Press Release And Its Aftermath.

Two Days ago the USGS released a press release about Burmese pythons and climate limitations to where it can live in the U.S. The reaction to its release has been overwhelming. Everyone has an opinion on it, so here is mine.

I believe the specific purpose of the release and the paper to follow was not to scare people but to find out if certain ideas about the Burmese python are true: That they can only live in areas similar to South Florida, wet and hot. That they are aquatic snakes and can’t withstand cold temperatures.

The people at USGS looked at where the B. python live in the wild and found the above to be totally false.

Unfortunately the media, and maybe the release itself, gave the impression that there is a python or two in your future, and they will be those whose ancestors lived in Florida. That, the snakes currently living in Florida, will like an invading army spread and take over the southern part of the U.S from coast to coast.

This is not likely since there are so many non-climatic barriers in its way, natural and man-made.

And remember this paper only looked at climate barriers.

But since large Burmese pythons are owned by people all over the U.S, and have been found wild all over the country. A feral colony of Burmese pythons doesn’t have to come from Florida to exist in California or Texas. The founder snakes of those colonies could very easily have been released or (escaped from) pet owners in those states.

Also because we have always assumed that Burmese pythons can only live in glades like areas, means that no one has been really looking in other possible viable habitats pointed out by the study. Incidents of single pythons, boas being discovered all over the U.S. are common. I wonder if anyone after the initial snake has been killed or captured has looked to see if there were more?

And, that it hasn’t happened yet (despite these snakes being in the US for over 50 years, at least), doesn’t mean it won’t. Starlings were introduced to the U.S. several times, in several different areas, before one population took (Brooklyn, NY to be exact). And now they are all over the U.S and Canada.

Unfortunately all this is true for other large constrictors, even boa constrictors, which live in areas from tropical to temperate, land and water.

So despite what the following articles might say, or imply, I look upon the USGS’s work as a warning: We have to look at the problem of invasive snakes (maybe even all reptiles) differently. We have to find ways to limit the way they spread. And, finally find ways from it occurring.

And it’s a warning people seem to have read or heard (though in many cases it seems only what part of it they wanted to.) People have to change the way they look at the potential harm of reptile invasives. People have to honestly, without agendas, look over past assumptions, Test them. If they fail, find out why. Get people aware of the problem and thinking about what to do. Get people talking and acting.

Based on what I’ve read on the many listservs and forums people are at least talking about the problem. Starting to take a closer, more realistic look. Step one has started.

So in case you’ve missed any of this, the following includes the USGS press release, the URL where to see the maps, and some articles about the press release from some several major newspapers.

When the paper finally does come out, in a month or so, I will publish how you can get a copy.

Decide for yourself.

The Editor
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2) USGS Maps Show Potential Non-Native Python Habitat Along Three U.S. Coasts
2/20/2008 10:45:00 Press Release USGS
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1875
The above is the URL where the maps can be found.

Burmese pythons—an invasive species in south Florida—could find comfortable climatic conditions in roughly a third of the United States according to new "climate maps" developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Although other factors such as type of food available and suitable shelter also play a role, Burmese pythons and other giant constrictor snakes have shown themselves to be highly adaptable to new environments.

The just-released USGS maps can help natural resource agencies manage and possibly control the spread of non-native giant constrictor snakes, such as the Burmese python, now spreading from Everglades National Park in Florida. These "climate match" maps show where climate in the U.S. is similar to places in which Burmese pythons live naturally (from Pakistan to Indonesia).

A look at the maps shows why biologists are concerned.

The maps show where climate alone would not limit these snakes. One map shows areas in the U.S. with current climatic conditions similar to those of the snakes' native ranges. A second map projects these "climate matches" at the end of this century based on global warming models, which significantly expands the potential habitat for these snakes.
Biologists with Everglades National Park confirmed a breeding population of Burmese python in the Florida Everglades in 2003, presumably the result of released pets. Python populations have since been discovered in Big Cypress National Preserve to the north, Miami's water management areas to the northeast, Key Largo to the southeast, and many state parks, municipalities, and public and private lands in the region.

"Wildlife managers are concerned that these snakes, which can grow to over 20 feet long and more than 250 pounds, pose a danger to state- and federally listed threatened and endangered species as well as to humans," said Bob Reed, a USGS wildlife biologist at the Fort Collins Science Center in Colorado, who helped develop the maps. "Several endangered species," he noted, "have already been found in the snakes' stomachs. Pythons could have even more significant environmental and economic consequences if they were to spread from Florida to other states."

Control of exotic species is often prohibitively expensive once they have become established. Therefore, prevention through screening and risk assessment is of great importance, especially when protecting continental areas from invasive reptiles, said USGS invasive snake expert Gordon Rodda, also of the Fort Collins center. USGS scientists and their partners are seeking to compile the scientific data necessary to guide management efforts to prevent further introductions, control existing populations of snakes, and contain their spread.

Burmese pythons have been found to eat endangered Key Largo woodrats and rare round-tailed muskrats. "This makes it that much more difficult to recover these dwindling populations and restore the Everglades," said park biologist Skip Snow, "and all the more important that pet owners be responsible in their choice of pet and dispose of it properly should they need to. Releasing them into the environment is bad for that pet, bad for native species, and also illegal."

Currently, scientists with the USGS and Everglades National Park are investigating the behavior and biology of these snakes - that is, what are their requirements for survival? This information will help refine predictions of where the snakes might go next and their likelihood of survival. USGS researchers are also conducting a risk assessment for nine species of giant constrictors (including boa constrictors and yellow anacondas) that are prevalent in the pet trade and as such, potential invaders in the United States.

Due to be completed by early 2009, the assessment evaluates the risk of invasion for these species and the potential for social, economic, and environmental impacts. The two agencies are also developing and testing tools to control invasive snake populations and prevent their spread, especially to the Florida Keys where several listed species would be threatened by the presence of pythons or other constrictors.

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3) New Threat To Our Way Of Life (San Francisco Chronicle)
2/21/08, Steve Rubenstein

In addition to everything else to worry about, now comes the Burmese python.

The giant snakes are slithering from Florida toward the Bay Area, very slowly to be sure, but inexorably. And they can strangle and eat an entire alligator.

The U.S. Geological Survey released a map Wednesday showing that the Bay Area has comfortable climatic conditions for the python. It also said the reptile, which prefers to swallow its prey in one gulp, is "highly adaptable to new environments" and cannot be stopped.

The snakes weigh up to 250 pounds and slither at a rate of 20 miles per month, according to USGS zoologist Gordon Rodda. They are not staying put. In fact, one of them has already slithered about 100 miles toward San Francisco.

"We have not yet identified something that would stop their spreading to the Bay Area," Rodda said.

If pet pythons were introduced into the wild in California by irresponsible pet owners, as happened in Florida, they could become established here even faster, without need of a cross-country journey.

The Burmese python is one of several nonnative giant constrictor snakes - believed to be former pets - that have been introduced and then established themselves in Florida's Everglades National Park. Biologists estimate 30,000 nonnative giant snakes live in the Everglades, perhaps more. Some have begun appearing in areas outside the park, alarming biologists and also people who don't care for snakes.

The snake that managed to slither 100 miles turned up on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in south central Florida. Another python made it as far as Vero Beach, Fla., on the Atlantic coast. Vero Beach is the spring training site for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the team has not reported any casualties, although its pitching staff could use help. Other on-the-move pythons have journeyed to Key Largo, where Humphrey Bogart once battled Edward G. Robinson.

At 20 miles a month, a determined Burmese python from Florida could arrive in San Francisco as early as August 2020.

"It would be exceptional for one animal to be that unidirectional in its movement, but it's mathematically possible," Rodda said.

The snake's cross-country crawl would be made easier by the large population of beavers along the way, Rodda said.

"Beavers would be a very tasty treat for them," Rodda said. "No beaver would be safe from a python."

The natural enemies of the python are lions, tigers and other large cats. There are few free-roaming African lions and tigers between Florida and San Francisco, the geological survey said. And the absence of alligators outside Florida can only help the snakes on their journey west, although it's a complicated relationship - while pythons eat alligators, alligators also eat pythons.

"A large alligator will eat a small python," Rodda said. "But we are not recommending you import alligators into California. That would not be a good idea."

Along with the climate map, the geological survey also released a fearsome photograph showing just what the Bay Area is in for. In the picture, a 20-foot-long python is encircling and attempting to strangle a full-grown alligator, while the alligator is doing its best to swallow the python. It is not for the faint of heart.

The snakes also like to eat rodents, deer and other mammals. Small Florida deer have been turning up inside the digestive tracts of Everglades pythons, which has alarmed deer lovers and also the deer.

As for other potential prey, human beings - like rodents, beavers and deer - are mammals, government scientists confirmed.

According to the new USGS map, the python would find about one-third of the United States - including much of California - to be comfortable for its expansion. In California, the only safe places to avoid the migrating pythons would be the colder areas - the Sierra, the Cascades or the North Coast. Such remote areas, however, could not support every panicked Californian seeking to avoid the giant snakes.

The control of nonnative species is an increasing problem for local biologists, who are currently battling the dread zebra mussel and the voracious northern pike. The mussel is threatening to clog Bay Area reservoirs, and pike are gobbling Northern California salmon and trout. Some studies have said the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the most-invaded ecosystem on the planet, with hundreds of introduced species that endanger native critters.

USGS researchers say pet owners must be responsible about snakes, especially when they no longer want them. There is nothing bad about snakes, the misunderstanding in a certain garden notwithstanding. Snakes are just being snakes. It's up to people to exercise their free will about snakes, which is the oldest lesson in the book.

"Americans are wealthy enough to possess exotic pets and ethical enough to decide the right thing to do when they can no longer keep them," Rodda said.

Releasing them into the wild is a very bad idea.

"Nobody wants to screw up the environment," Rodda said. "But that's what's happening."
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4) Pythons Could Thrive -- Beyond South Florida (Miami Herald) Thu, Feb. 21, 2008, by Curtis Morgan

The Everglades apparently isn't big enough for the giant invaders, who have grown fat, happy and increasingly numerous on a diet of unsuspecting natives. Over the last year, pythons have been found in the wild from Key Largo to Glades County -- and a new study suggests the exotic predators could spread beyond South Florida.

The Burmese, or Indian, python -- at least theoretically -- would feel right at home from California to Delaware in a array of habitats from scrub deserts to mountain forests, according to a study by federal scientists. In 100 years, global warming might even extend the range for the big snakes as far north as the Big Apple.

The results, said lead author Gordon Rodda, a zoologist with the United States Geological Survey, will probably even surprise many biologists.

'Many people get their image of where pythons live from The Jungle Book,' '' said Rodda, one of a number of scientists working with Everglades National Park on eradication efforts. ``Pythons don't just occur in tropical areas.''

The study, soon to be published in the journal Biological Invasions -- the exotic-species threat is serious enough to merit its own academic publication -- doesn't point to places pythons definitely will spread, but presents maps showing where the climate could allow migrating or illegally released pythons to survive.

The suitable habitat, which stretches from coast to coast, underlines an all-terrain capability that scientists say has allowed one of the world's largest snakes to thrive in the Everglades.

''It's a pretty hardy animal,'' said Skip Snow, a biologist with Everglades National Park who leads a multiagency effort to eradicate fast-spreading and formidable invaders that threaten native wildlife.

Pythons, which can top 20 feet in length, potentially could upset the natural balance of the Everglades or other wild places -- a concern memorably illustrated in 2005 by now-famous photos of a 13-foot python that exploded after attempting to swallow a six-foot alligator.

In 2002, when python numbers first started climbing in the park, the conventional wisdom was that nature would control them, Snow said -- fire ants would eat their eggs, gators would eat them or maybe a deep freeze would kill them all.

Now, they're breeding and the population appears to be booming. The number of captures in the park hit nearly 250 in 2007, Snow said, more than a 50 percent jump. While that may not sound like much in so vast a park, the captures represent only a fraction of the actual population.

Last year, pythons also showed evidence of pushing beyond the Everglades, with more than a half-dozen captures in Key Largo, including one snake found because it swallowed an endangered wood rat equipped with a radio tracking device. Another snake was found as far north as the Brighton Seminole Reservation in Glades County, where it revealed itself, freshly chopped, under a roadside mower.

To assess the potential threat of the python nationally, Rodda and two colleagues in the USGS Invasive Species Science Branch -- ecologist Catherine Jarnevich and wildlife biologist Robert Reed -- looked at weather patterns in its native Southeast Asia.

There the snake is found in 11 countries, from Bangladesh to Vietnam, and survives not just in swamps but forests, scrub deserts and the foothills of the Himalayas. Hibernation, which can last for four months, allows the snakes to survive extended chills in some areas.

Rodda stressed that the study was intended only as a broad survey of suitable areas and did not take into account critical factors like the availability of prey or burrowing areas. But similar climate-based assessments are frequently used to evaluate the threats of exotic plants, weeds and pests, the study said.

The scientists found that the snakes could adapt to climates in 11 states across the southern border as well as Mexico. Under a global warming model, it could make a go of it as far north as New York and New Jersey.

For scientists and state wildlife managers, the continuing spread of the snake on its own is a real concern.

''The evidence from Florida is that they are spreading northward at a rapid rate,'' Rodda said.

Last year, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission adopted tougher restrictions, including snake registration, in an effort to confine the python to south of Lake Okeechobee and deter illegal releases, considered the source of the problem. The agency is also sponsoring exotic-pet amnesty days for owners to turn in unwanted creatures, with the third set for Saturday at Metrozoo.

But Rodda said the study underlines a bigger threat that released pets could take hold elsewhere, as they have in the Everglades. He and Snow hope wildlife managers in other states deemed ''suitable'' for the big snakes pay attention and begin to adopt restrictions, like Florida.

''The most direct use of this map is for managers who are concerned about where something could get released and survive,'' Rodda said. 'If somebody in Corpus Christi, Texas, says, `I have a bunch of pythons and I want to release them,' then worry about that dude. It could be a big problem.''
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5) Burmese Pythons May Be Headed Up To Georgia (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) 02/22/08, By Mark Davis,

One day, Mr. Bivittatus may decide that Florida is just too crowded. Perhaps he'll cast his gaze to the west, where Alabama's pine forests offer a shady, quiet home. Or maybe he'll head straight north, following the blacktops to Georgia's green folds.

And there, he and his children likely will prosper, swallowing just about anything they can squeeze to death.

You read that correctly, dear reader. Mr. Bivittatus' full name is Python molarus bivittatus, the Burmese python. A federal agency says they are heading our way from the Florida Everglades, and they are hungry.

"They are going to chow down on deer," said Robert Reed, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, which released a report Wednesday predicting the big snakes would move into other states from their roosts in the Everglades. "They will chow down on pigs. They will chow down on turkeys."

Will they chow down Labrador retrievers? Maine coon cats? Grandma's canary? Reed says yes.

But don't run to Home Depot asking for snake wire to fence off your house — not just yet. Like a lot of Florida residents, the snakes don't travel fast. It could be decades before the first python slips over the state line. The greater danger, biologists say, likely may come from former pet pythons that are already here — reptiles dumped in forests, parks and backyards.

A retired University of Georgia professor who wrote a book about Southeastern snakes is not so certain pythons will crawl our way.

(More on him in a bit; let's read the scary stuff first.)

Pythons and other big constrictors are "highly adaptable to new environments," the USGS said in its report. Burmese pythons, which can reach 16 feet long and weigh 160 pounds, could find comfortable digs in as much as one-third of the continental United States.

The USGS came to this conclusion by "climate matching" 149 areas in Asia, where pythons naturally occur, to regions in the United States, Reed said. Scientists took into account temperature, rainfall and availability of food. If the conditions in a village in Sri Lanka, for example, were comparable to that of a town in South Carolina, what would stop the pythons from moving in?

Based on that standard, scientists devised a U.S. map highlighting states where pythons would flourish. The big snakes, they said, could range nearly into Maryland. They could crawl westward through Alabama, Louisiana, Texas. When they reached California, they could head north, stopping somewhere between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

They're nothing to fear, said Jeff Jackson, who taught herpetology courses at UGA until he retired in 2001.

"Maybe they'll expand their range," said Jackson, author of "Snakes of the Southeastern United States." "And maybe they won't."

Perhaps Mr. Bivittatus knows. Dear reader, you are welcome to ask him.
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