http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/florida/science/art24101.html
By Jill Austin
Halting the spread of Burmese pythons out of the Everglades and into neighboring conservation lands is the goal of the “Python Patrol,” a Nature Conservancy program first launched in the Florida Keys two years ago.
Regular citizens are taught to call in snake sightings and wildlife officials are trained to capture the snakes as part of the Python Patrol effort to prevent the spread of a breeding population and protect the often-rare species these snakes are feeding on.
The Python Patrol was created by Nature Conservancy Land Conservation Program Manager Alison Higgins when Burmese pythons were found swimming more than 6 miles from Everglades National Park to the Florida Keys and eating rare Keys woodrats.
The Patrol includes the Eyes and Ears team – citizens who spend their time out driving and can spot the invading snakes – and Responders to arrive at the sighting within 20 minutes and scoop the pythons up.
Snake in the Road!
Workers who spend much of their day driving, such as FedEx and U.S. Postal Service drivers, have joined the Eyes & Ears Team. Pythons often warm themselves on the roads, so the drivers are ideal candidates to look for snakes.
“We have almost 90 participants trained — safety officers, meter readers, postal workers, road crews, landscape crews — to recognize the problem species,” Higgins says.
When Eyes & Ears Team members sight a snake and call the python hotline, 1-888-IVE-GOT-1, the sheriff’s office quickly dispatches someone in the Keys trained to capture invasive snakes. The phone number has just been expanded to work statewide, with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission providing an operator for regions outside the Keys.
This task force of patrollers and responders has grown to more than 120 fighting the invasion of Burmese pythons into lands that border Florida's Everglades National Park — infested with a population that some estimate at more than 30,000 snakes. The Everglades problem started more than a dozen years ago because of a few released pets.
“Early-detection, rapid-response is the best way to stop them,” says Higgins. “We are collecting about one snake every couple of months in the Keys, so we are confident right now that they aren’t breeding here and it’s working.” Higgins said elsewhere she knew of a water management district staff member who works outside the park on the mainland and averages one python capture per week.
Success in the Keys has prompted Higgins to expand the program. In December patrollers and responders were trained in two different multi-county areas in southwest Florida to stop the spread of pythons out of the Everglades. More Python Patrol workshops are being scheduled for Florida’s west coast this spring.
* Listen to "Mail Carriers on Python Patrol in South Florida" on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.
“We ask the responders to consider safety first and then work to tire out the snake before they capture it. Luckily these pythons tire very quickly,” Higgins says.
The capture techniques the responders are trained in include treadmilling, where the catcher drags their hands one after the other along the underbelly of the snake to make it think it is getting away, and using a sheet or towel like a bullfighter might to get the snake to strike.
When the snake is tired, the capturers firmly grab at the base of the head and avoid the writhing body getting wrapped around their legs.
In the Belly of a Python
The first Keys python was discovered alive in 2007 when two researchers studying federally endangered Key Largo woodrats were checking on the status of a male woodrat wearing a radio transmitter that had moved more than a mile from its original documented habitat.
The signal led the University of St. Andrews graduate student and a volunteer assistant to a 7-1/2-foot Burmese python sunning itself.
The contents of the captured snake’s stomach included not only the collared woodrat but another one as well.
No Signs of Breeding…Yet!
While pythons aren’t known to attack people, they are voracious and indiscriminate eaters.
To reach a full-grown length of about 13 feet, one python would need to eat nearly 200 pounds of food over five years. Some captured snakes have grown as large as 20 feet.
But the good news is that Conservancy biologists don’t believe the Keys pythons are yet breeding, since no smaller snakes have been found.
“These snakes have to be older before they disperse like this, so right now we have a good chance to prevent the next invasion," says Higgins. "We are empowering a lot of new partners in the community to help.”
Next Stop: Washington D.C.?
The Conservancy has been working for more than three years in Florida on the policy end of the invasive python issue — supporting a federal petition to get the Burmese python listed and taken out of the pet trade. Infestations often start when exotic pets escape or are released. Find out what to do when you can no longer care for an exotic pet.
The Conservancy supported Florida legislation that went into effect last January that requires new owners of Nile monitor lizards and five large constrictor snakes (including the Burmese python) to pay $100 for a permit and to install an identification chip so escaped pets can be tracked back to their owners.
The Non-native Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act (HR 669) bill, reintroduced in Congress last January, is a priority for the Conservancy.
The bill seeks to prevent invasive species by requiring Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to assess the invasive risks associated with imported wildlife and prohibit the importation of those species that are likely to be invasive here in the United States.
It would not supercede, but complement, authority already available to several federal agencies under existing law to help prevent invasives at the federal level.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fl) added some urgency to the effort when he introduced a bill last year to ban the importation and interstate commerce of the python.
This step, to specifically include the python in the prohibitions listed in the Lacey Act, is needed to reduce the number of pythons released into the wild by pet owners who don't understand the responsibility caring for a python entails, Nelson testified before a Congressional committee.
“If we do not take action now, we will let python populations in Florida continue to grow and further ravage the already-fragile Everglades, as well as risk letting them spread throughout the southern portion of the United States,” Nelson told the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
The legislation is timely as the snakes are potentially more than just Florida's problem. The native climate of the invasive pythons — from Pakistan to Indonesia — is the same as about one-third of the United States, according to new “climate maps” released by the U.S. Geological Survey.
“It’s sad that it’s gotten this far — and unfortunately, there is no reason to think that they aren’t going to disperse farther north,” says Kris Serbesoff-King, The Nature Conservancy’s Florida invasive species program manager.
“Maybe they won’t get to New York City, but their native habitat compares to the entire southern United States,” adds Serbesoff-King. “The positive thing is that in the Keys there is a high likelihood that we can be successful.”
Jill Austin is a senior conservation writer with The Nature Conservancy in Florida.
