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jscrick
at Mon Aug 3 22:45:22 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by jscrick ]
REPTILES Magazine October, 2009, page 17.
"Michael E. Dorcas, Davidson College professor who's leading the study hopes to assess the validity of a controversial theory that suggests Burmese Pythons could find suitable climatic conditions in roughly a third of the United States."...
"Dorcas said researchers are trying as much as possible to isolate climate as the only factor affecting the snakes. Housed in a seminatural enclosure with aquatic and terrestrial habitats, the pythons experience South Carolina's natural environmental conditions, and they are fed rats or rabbits every two weeks. Researchers are monitoring their survivorship, body condition, behavior and thermal condition."
Personally, I don't think much of this study, as described here. I'm no scientist, but this doesn't pass the smell test for scientific objectivity. Way too subjective. Way too many caveats and prejudicial assumptions. Not double blind. Inadequate controls. What did I leave out? All one sex. That habitat is extremely well protected from frost and low temperatures. Nothing but Gulf Stream breezes and Palm Trees. A Semi Tropical habitat on par with Bermuda.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer
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 BURMESE PYTHON study begins. - jscrick, Mon Aug 3 22:45:22 2009
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