Invasive Burmese pythons have established a new hot spot in Florida, wildlife experts say
Invasive Burmese pythons have slithered to a new location in South Florida, establishing a colony outside the previously established core range, according to wildlife officials.
Historically, Burmese python populations in South Florida were centered in Everglades National Park in Miami-Dade County, but they eventually became established from Lake Okeechobee to Key Largo and from western Broward County west to Collier County, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
A new satellite population has since emerged. Burmese pythons are now considered established in a portion of western Charlotte County, situated north of Naples and Fort Myers on Florida's Gulf Coast, a spokesperson for the FWC told ABC News.
Now, researchers are concerned that more ecosystems will be disrupted as the apex predators with a ferocious appetite feast on a buffet of raccoons, opossums, bobcats, alligators and birds -- including prey bigger than themselves.
"This is a generalist apex predator, and this is the why we're so interested in removing them from the ecosystem," Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist and science coordinator at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples, told ABC News.
Once Burmese pythons move into an area, most mammal populations are decimated, leaving behind a "simplified ecosystem" dominated by rodents and other invasive species, Robert McCleery, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida, told ABC News.
"This is a pattern we have not yet found a way to stop or reverse at the scales needed to address the problem," McCleery said.
The FWC began receiving an increase in python reports beginning in 2020 -- mostly within the townships of Rotonda West, Placida, Englewood East, and South Gulf Cove, the spokesperson said.
There is no indication that the Burmese pythons arrived in Charlotte County as a result of natural migration, the FWC spokesperson said. The agency believes the animals were likely captive and escaped or were released.
The evidence of the new colony is consistent with what biologists would expect from a satellite population established through intentional introductions rather than a natural expansion, Bartoszek said.
An estimated 180,000 were brought into the country between 1975 and 2018, many of which entered the ecosystem through accidental or intentional release, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As of 2000, the species had established a self-sustaining breeding population in the South Florida ecosystem.
Wildlife experts have not been able to estimate how many Burmese pythons exist in Florida due to low detectability, according to the FWC.
Detectability of Burmese pythons has an estimated success rate of 1% to 3%, meaning out of 100 snakes in a survey area, there could be a chance of spotting between one to three individuals, research has shown. The frequency of Burmese python detection at Everglades National Park is about one python per eight hours of searching, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The FWC and partnering agencies are continuing to monitor and survey for Burmese pythons in Charlotte and Lee Counties.
