Do you know what the longest snake on earth is? The longest recorded snake in the world is a reticulated python named Medusa, which is owned by a production company in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She is 7.67 meters long, and Medusa also holds the current title of "Longest Snake".
Reticulated python, also known as the overlord python, net python, snake suborder, snake suborder large python, reticulated python is called reticulated python, the reason is that it has a complex diamond-type mesh pattern on its back, the color is usually black brown, yellow, or light gray, reticulated python is mainly distributed in East Asia, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines and other places, reticulated python and African rock python, there are records of strangling and devouring humans.
Although reticulated pythons are listed as a protected animal by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (cites), they are hunted in the United States as an invasive species, with Florida having the largest number of reticulated pythons.
In the last century, Burmese pythons were sold as pets in the United States, and merchants did not tell customers that Burmese pythons were giant snakes for profit, causing many people to abandon them, and Burmese pythons thus established wild populations in the United States.
Florida is a famous trade center in the United States, and the Port of Miami is the world's largest cruise ship berthing port, with the largest container throughput in Florida, with about 100 routes to and from the world's 250 ports. Its strategic location and complete transportation network make Florida the pet trading center of the United States.
Americans love to keep all kinds of pets, taking amphibians and reptiles as an example, if 10 exotic species enter the Florida wild, 8 of them are only through the pet trade.
There is a local pet buyer who can be considered a "crime-ridden": From 1995 to 2010, at least 32 alien species fled from its home to the wild, accounting for 23% of Florida's current exotic amphibian and reptile species. In 2010, in a small puddle next to the shop, people even found spotless fat salamanders from China, oriental salamanders and oriental bell toads. Now, the restocker is so famous that small children, pet lovers, and even two climbers like to hang out near his house to see if they can pick up fresh species that have escaped...
The reticulated python also entered the natural environment of the United States in this way, establishing a wild population, and the Everglades of Florida have a vast terrain and a tropical climate, which is very suitable for pythons to hide and grow.
They have caused serious damage to the ecosystem of the United States, and the reticulated python has a very mixed diet, including amphibians, lizards, birds and some small mammals, and their predatory ability is very amazing, they mainly bite each other with their teeth when they prey, and then wrap their bodies around their enemies. Their heads can swell several times and their teeth grow backwards. They usually swallow their prey in its entirety before slowly digesting it. They can directly swallow a 2-meter-long alligator, and a 4.8-meter python even eats three large deer. It wrapped the deer and tied it up, and used its strong muscle strength to strangle the deer.
In addition to eating more, reticulated pythons also have more raw ones, and a litter can lay nearly 100 eggs. Scientists like the one that captured a female Burmese python in a Florida cypress tree, more than 17 inches long and weighing about 140 pounds (about 63.5 kilograms), contained 73 developing eggs.
Eating more, growing more, and having a suitable environment, there are currently 300,000 reticulated pythons in the entire United States. The United States has become a haven for reticulated pythons, which have become at the top of the everglades' food chain after fierce competition with native predators, the American crocodile. The presence of reticulated pythons has caused changes and subversions in the ecosystem of Florida's marshlands, posing a serious threat to native birds, rodents, deer and even alligators, because a large number of native animals are preyed upon by Burmese pythons, which directly squeezes out the living space of mountain lions, mountain lions are more difficult to hunt, the population is sharply reduced, and the number of Florida subspecies of mountain lions in the wild in 2013 is only about 160.
In 2010, Florida announced a ban on burmese pythons and several other large snakes from being pets, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a decree prohibiting the import and interstate transportation of large snakes. In addition to this, the United States began the "Python Elimination Program". Florida, USA, has specially trained full-time python hunters to track down and kill invading pythons, and the program gives python hunters the right to "humanely" kill pythons and allows the use of guns to perform "euthanasia", python hunters patrol the Everglades and receive $8.25 an hourly salary, plus they have a reward for each python they catch, and the reward increases with the size of the snake. When a 1.2-meter python is caught, the hunter earns a net $50, with an additional $25 for each additional foot (0.3048 meters).
The United States also deliberately held the "Myanmar Python Challenge", the participants "training on the job", the team that catches the most pythons can get up to $5,000 in prize money, and the individual who catches the number of pythons can get $3,500. The team that catches the biggest python receives $3,000, and the individual receives $1,000.
Since 2017, python hunters have killed about 6,300 Burmese pythons, but this is a drop in the bucket compared to a huge population of 300,000, and because of the suitable environment, the Burmese pythons in the United States are getting bigger and bigger, and their ability to disguise themselves is so strong that people standing next to them cannot even be aware of its presence. This also makes hunting difficult, and hunters are forbidden to use traps, bait, explosives, chemicals, smoke, and power tools when hunting Burmese pythons. This is also the reason why hundreds of hunters have worked hard for 5 years to hunt less than 10,000 pieces.
It can be said that 300,000 Burmese pythons are difficult to meet in the United States.
In fact, in addition to the Burmese python, according to the latest report from the U.S. Geological Survey, scientists have found 8 more exotic pythons in Florida, including the African rock python and the world's heaviest snake, the green anaconda. These pythons cruise through the wetlands, scientists worry. If two pythons mate, they will give birth to a hybrid python, just as it would happen in captivity. Due to the biological phenomenon of "hybrid advantage", the hybrids born after mating of different species of pythons may become more powerful and ferocious predators.
The python plague facing the United States today has also sounded the alarm for other countries, and we must take a more cautious and reasonable approach to how to deal with alien species.