Research Task: 8327CM6.2.0
Task Manager: Bob Reed
Over the past several years, giant constrictors of several species have surfaced in the vicinity of Everglades National Park. The best documented is the Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus), of which hundreds of specimens have been collected from the park. An established population of Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor) exists about 20 km east of the park. Feral Reticulated Pythons (Python reticulatus) have been collected at intervals in the Miami metropolitan area adjoining the park to the east and northeast and have been sighted in mangrove forest north of Flamingo. Following earlier reports, a Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) was collected in 2005 at Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, which adjoins the park on the northwest corner. In 2006 additional reports of this species in that area were noted, but as yet there is only a single confirmed specimen. Each of these four snake species has the potential to appreciably alter the natural community of life in Everglades National Park and throughout the southeastern United States. FORT scientists are conducting a risk assessment of 9 snake species to evaluate the ecological, economic, and human-welfare risks associated with invasive giant constrictors in the Florida ecosystem. In the course of assisting land managers from several agencies in Florida tasked with addressing the issue of invasive snakes, FORT scientists are also researching and evaluating control methods for invasive snakes, including ecological research required for effective implementation of these methods.
For more information contact Bob Reed
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.fort.usgs.gov/Research/research_tasks.asp
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