Posted by:
boaphile
at Sun Feb 24 14:41:10 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by boaphile ]
One other potentially huge issues I think that was also overlooked is "human developmental barriers". "Human developmental barriers" is a term I just made up. There may be a scientifically recognized term for this. The United States of America is not the same as underdeveloped South East Asia.
Certainly some Pythons have become established in Florida, and on rare occasions have been seen in areas that are developed. However, these instances must be in locations that are in very close proximity to areas that are, in effect, wilderness and prime habitat. Prime habitat, that is undeveloped wilderness, even if the climate was conducive to it, is a rare thing in most of the Southern areas this fellow's illogical map details. The fact that the vast majority of these areas are developed, makes them rotten places to live. This is especially true if you happen to need to be at least 10' long in order to procreate. In the United States, southern areas or otherwise, the vast majority of lands are farmed or ranched. These areas have farmers coming through with $200,000 tractors pulling a 30' wide disc chopping anything in it's path to bits. They have massive combines chomping and harvesting everything in their path. leaving in their wake shreds of waste. These facts, if they don't make it impossible for Burmese Pythons to move North, would certainly dramatically slow the progress of such.
These farming fact is in stark contrast to places in Asia where most of the land is worked by hand. It is an easy thing to slide away if a farmer is hacking away near by with a hoe. It is much more difficult to take off if a John Deere is bearing down on you with those 10,000 pound liquid filled wheels.
There are already many species that are geographically isolated due man's development of the land. This is already a fact. In fact some species live in only very small pockets throughout the United States and no longer have continuous ranges due to the development of the land by mankind. To ignore this and assume that poorly analyzed climatic data be the only factor, in the possibility of the expansion of a species, is patently not only inaccurate but fundamentally dishonest. I imagine that if this range map was completed with facts in mind, it would have been far more limiting and thus much less memorable than the map that was developed is. This map was developed assuming that the climatic averages, poorly analyzed, were all that was necessary for a very large animal to expand it's range. Of course there are many other factors such as food supply, predation of neonates, temperature extremes, roadways and many other ignored facts that all have a detrimental impact upon existing species let alone the establishment of a new species, especially of a large species like the Burmese Python.
All of this is really a moot point because the climate alone would not allow the feared Burmese Python to move North anyhow.
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Good Comments. More - boaphile, Sun Feb 24 14:41:10 2008