>>As I said Dusty I agree with much of what you said BUT the idea that this area is almost perfect for tropical species is NOT TRUE. They are hanging on here and doing well UNTIL we get that little bit of unusual cold as we did this year.

The cold is not going to kill them all off. To assume so would be ignoring genetics and evolution. What happens when you kill off all but the most cold-tolerant in a generation? You're left with animals that are genetically primed for the next generation of cold-tolerant animals. Modern farmers use this sort of selection all the time when producing seeds for the next crop. And more cold snaps equals more cold tolerant snakes. And the gene(s) responsible for the cold tolerance soon go to fixation, especially if the population dwindles at first. Do I think that they will spread out from south Florida? No, I'm sure there's a threshold as to how genetically cold tolerant you can breed them. But breeders never select for cold tolerance in captivity (only color patterns), so we have no idea what that is yet until nature shows us, unfortunately. It makes the case all the more urgent to remove them from Florida. The Pythons have been documented since the 90s. That's certainly enough time for them to have endured other cold snaps.

>>It is still only a Florida concern and much is being made over nothing...

Are you talking about the spreading across America paper and subsequent media? If so, I am also skeptical of them migrating that far. The PBS topic, however, is very relevant, and the word needs to get out and often.


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>>Tom Crutchfield
>>www.tomcrutchfield.com

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