On October 5, 2020, the surging news reported that a young man in Ningbo teased the ball python sent by his friend in the middle of the night, and as a result, he was bitten on the arm, and several times he could not let it go, and then guess what? The boy picked up the scissors and clicked to cut the head of the ball python, and also sent a circle of friends to show off, the result can be imagined, the boy was criminally detained for suspected killing rare and endangered wild animals!
Almost all pythons are protected animals in our country, so you should pay attention and don't break the law! But across the ocean from Florida, the U.S. government is encouraging people to slaughter pythons, and Florida authorities are giving 300,000 Burmese pythons a headache in 150,000 square kilometers, which have left many local animals cornered!
<h1>Burmese python, how did it run to Florida in the United States? </h1>
Although called the Burmese python, it inhabits many countries in Southeast Asia, is one of the world's largest snakes, up to 7 meters long, weighs more than 90 kg, because the Burmese python snakeskin pattern is extremely beautiful, so the capture of peeled leather products has become the largest hunting reason for burmese pythons, so in Southeast Asia, the number of Burmese pythons is becoming increasingly rare, listed as "endangered species" by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Burmese python skin
There are also many people who talk about Burmese pythons as pets, which is why they entered Florida in the United States. The Burmese python was first discovered in Everglades Park in 1990, and by time, it may have been brought into Florida sometime in the 1980s, because Miami, southern Florida, is the hub of the exotic pet trade in the United States!
Because burmese pythons are huge and will continue to grow throughout their lives, and there is no correct understanding when purchasing as a pet snake, the owner may not choose to send it to the zoo when it grows unbearable, but directly release it in the wild, which may be the same problem for pet owners around the world.
Burmese pythons also encountered their relative, the Indian python, in 2001, when the U.S. Geological Survey began a 10-year analysis of 400 pythons caught in the Everglades, which confirmed the existence of a hybrid line with the Indian python, which made the hybrid more suitable for The Florida swamp ecosystem.
Distribution of burmese pythons in Florida
The number of Burmese pythons in Florida has risen exponentially since it was identified as a breeding population in 2000, and according to USGS (United States Geological Survey) information, the total number of Burmese pythons in Florida in a few decades may be between 30,000 and 300,000! As early as January 2012, the U.S. Department of the Interior had banned the import of Burmese pythons, but this had long since stopped at nothing.
<h1>How arrogant is the Burmese python in the United States? </h1>
The Burmese python has several advantages in Florida, the first is that its size is really too big, you see the Burmese python swallowing the alligator failed to swallow the alligator and the stomach is broken, but in fact most of the time it is successful, which is one of the rare opponents of the crocodile in adulthood (the other opponent is the jaguar), so the Burmese python has no opponents in the Everglades area.
Another advantage is the ability to reproduce super, although the Burmese python only breeds once a year, but a litter can lay 20 to 50 eggs, or even the most more than 80, this mathematical problem should be very simple, as long as dozens, how big is the number after decades?
A pregnant female Burmese python has 73 eggs in her body
Burmese pythons have crushed native species
Burmese pythons have unlimited prey, from small mammals to aquatic amphibians, and even birds flying in the air are their meals, and even if they do not eat for a long time, they can still maintain a strong aggressive vitality, posing a powerful threat to native species.
From 1996 to 1997 and 2003 to 2011 (two periods before and after the spread of the Burmese python), the decline rate of native species in the Everglades region reached 88% to 100% without witness records, and even the newly introduced swamp rabbits in the Everglades Park became extinct, indicating that the native species have been severely squeezed, either directly eaten or food has been plundered, and it is difficult to sustain.
Even the top predator cougars have been severely affected, with large numbers of small animals captured by Burmese pythons, leaving Florida mountain lions with no animals to catch and a sharp decline in numbers.
The remains of dozens of animals have been found inside the python, such as bird feathers and bobcat claws
Hunting Burmese pythons, a lucrative job
The flood of Burmese pythons in Florida has made the Florida government begin to encourage people to hunt Burmese pythons, and in 2013, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sponsored a Burmese Python Hunting Challenge to reward python catchers in cash, a total of 1600 registered players, only 68 were caught in a one-month period, but in the 2016 challenge, 1000 participants caught 106 Burmese pythons.
Isn't it a weak chicken? In fact, the Burmese python camouflage color and the swamp area with almost seamless, many times even the Burmese python in the foot is difficult to find, and hunters also found that the use of dogs to search for the effect will be better, but in the swamp area put dog search, dogs are likely to have no return, because the Burmese python itself is a great threat to dogs, the effect of shallow water is not good.
Others have resorted to python traps, and even the authorities have considered biological control methods, such as the use of viruses that infect Burmese pythons, but have been quickly rejected by biologists because of the incalculable damage to other species in the local ecology.
Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist at the Southwest Florida Conservation Area, is tracking male Burmese pythons
In 2013, a nonprofit scientific organization in the Southwest Florida Protected Area implanted radio transmitters in dozens of Burmese male pythons, and when they were with female snakes between December and March each year, the female snakes could be captured to reduce reproductive opportunities, but at too much cost and too long.
Python hunter shot
The Python Removal Program has a total of 25 contract hunters, paid a fixed salary, and a $50 bonus for each Father of burmese pythons over four feet (1.2 meters), and an additional $25 for every 1 foot, so the prize money for hunting a 20-foot Burmese python is still considerable, and the hunters can also keep the snake skin for sale.
Donna Kalil
Donna Kalil, the only female contract hunter, has captured more than 140 Burmese pythons, while contract hunters like Donna, who have killed more than 2,000 Burmese pythons in total since the purge program began, is far from enough to offset the burmese python's frantic reproduction rate.
Can Burmese pythons eat them?
Of course, it can be eaten, and the Florida authorities also advocate that restaurants give Burmese python menus, but Dr. David Krabbenhoft, an environmental chemist at the U.S. Geological Survey, obtained 50 Samples of Burmese Python tissue from everglades National Park, has mercury levels as high as 3.5 ppm, while Florida stipulates that fish are not recommended to eat as long as the mercury content is above 1.5 ppm, so the road is broken.
However, since December 2020, the FWC is confirming new safe edible quantities in order to give Burmese pythons a source of profit!
In July 2020, the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced that a total of 5,000 Burmese pythons had been eradicated since the establishment of the clearance program
There is also the green forest grasshopper, and the heads of the people of Florida are big
Another unfortunate news is that the largest python species on the earth, the South American green forest crab, has also invaded Florida, where the climate is more similar to South America, so they are very comfortable here, the same green forest crab recipe and the Burmese python almost coincide, simply put, the two world's largest snakes met in Florida, it is humans who give them the opportunity!
Green forest grasshopper habitat
But the problem is that the end of Florida's other wildlife has arrived, and the Burmese python and green forest crab crisis in the Everglades has only just begun!