Invasive species lack natural predators in the Everglades wetland ecosystem, the largest in North America.
MIAMI – A 22-year-old female Burmese python, more than 19 feet long and weighing 56.75 kilograms, captured this week in the Big Cypress National Reserve in South Florida is the largest python ever caught in the area. .
Jake Valeri, a resident of Naples (southwest Florida), noticed the colossal python in this nature reserve on July 10 and decided to capture it, realizing the “importance of removing this invasive predator from the Florida ecosystem.” The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is listed on its website.
After explaining, “The impact on the ecosystem of South Florida is incredible. We love this ecosystem and try to protect it as much as possible,” after explaining that once the giant python was caught, they took it. It will be officially measured and documented for the said center.
“We want to donate this discovery to science,” Valerie added in a press release collected by this environmental organization for the protection of wildlife.
“We realized these snakes were so large, and now we have clear evidence. Their genetic material may prove valuable for our ultimate understanding of the South Florida population,” said Ian Easterling, a biologist at the center.
In 2022, a team of biologists from the organization captured a female Burmese python measuring 5.49 meters long and weighing 97 kg in the Everglades wetlands, the largest ever captured in Florida.
During the autopsy, scientists found 122 eggs in the stomach of the specimen captured that year.
Eradication of female pythons plays an important role in disrupting the reproductive cycle of these predators that wreak havoc on the Everglades ecosystem and consume food sources of other native species.
The Burmese python is an invasive species that lacks natural predators in the largest Everglades wetland ecosystem in North America.
In Florida, keeping and selling these reptiles as pets is prohibited and their importation is prohibited nationwide.
Burmese pythons are believed to have arrived in the Everglades after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, either intentionally or accidentally released by people who kept them as pets. EFE
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