MIAMI — Radio telemetry is the new hope in the titanic fight against the Burmese python, an alien species that began invading Everglades wetlands decades ago and poses a serious threat to Florida’s biodiversity.
Florida State University (UF) has launched a program that involves implanting very high frequency (VHF) radio transmitters in captured pythons to help them better understand their habitat and locate other animals of their species. in order to establish a strategy for its elimination on a large scale.
Melissa Miller, project manager and invasive species specialist at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), tells EFE that the goal is to reduce the impact of this species in the Everglades, a large wetland in South Florida that is home to more than 2,000 species of animals and plants.
“Burmese pythons have a significant impact on Florida’s ecosystem and threaten Everglades restoration efforts. Additionally, they have depleted native mammal populations and spread parasites to native snakes,” he said. .
According to recent studies, pythons have reduced the population of mammals such as voles, weasels, raccoons or rabbits by up to 99% in certain areas of the Everglades.
Python eats an alligator in the Florida Everglades
PYTHON HABITAT
The UF program plans to study python habitat use in Everglades marshes and islands, as well as collect mating data to estimate population size.
“Over 17,000 pythons have been collected in Florida. However, we currently do not have a reliable population size estimate,” he notes.
The program is led by UF/IFAS scientists in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Fort Collins Science Center, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), and the Fisheries Commission and Florida Wildlife (FWC) .
Pythons captured by SFWMD and FWC staff dedicated to the species’ eradication programs are implanted with “two tracking devices that have a battery life of approximately 2 to 3 years,” says Miller.
The tracking device emits very high frequency radio waves that can be detected using an antenna.
So far, the program team is tracking eight adult male and female pythons.
A Burmese python over 15 feet has been spotted in Everglades National Park.
THE BURMESE PYTHON: A LONG-STANDING STRUGGLE
The females, which naturally secrete sex pheromones, attract around them many male pythons who compete for the opportunity to mate and so, thanks to locators, they can be “caught and killed” at once, said Miller.
Additionally, males equipped with the tracking device can help locate female pythons, which have a high reproductive capacity, which is why they have been so successful in conquering the Everglades.
The fight against these predatory animals is carried out mainly by authorized hunters, who receive money for each specimen killed, although different technologies have also been used experimentally.
Miller notes that Florida Burmese pythons feed on a wide diversity of species, have a high reproductive rate, and grow to large sizes in an ecosystem with few predators, which “makes the Burmese python a serious risk” to the Everglades ecosystem.
It’s unclear exactly how the predatory Burmese pythons found their way to the Everglades, but one theory is that they were free-roaming pets after Hurricane Andrew, which devastated an area of South Florida in 1992.
According to the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service, approximately 99,000 Burmese pythons were imported from the United States between 1996 and 2006 alone.
The presence of the species in South Florida has been documented since the early 1980s of the last century.
The python had 122 eggs in its abdomen and weighed around 97 kilos.