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Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by tigers9 on September 14, 2009
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Article talks about burm/rock hybrid, did anybody do it in captive environment so far?
Z
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090911-pythons-florida-giant-snakes.html
Python "Nightmare": New Giant Species Invading Florida
Christine Dell'Amore
National Geographic News
September 14, 2009
Already squeezed by the invasion of the giant Burmese python, Florida now faces what one scientist calls one of the U.S. state's "worst nightmares."
Africa's largest snake—the ill-tempered, 20-foot-long (6.1-meter-long) African rock python—is colonizing the U.S. state, new discoveries suggest.
Six African rock pythons have been found in Florida since 2002. More troubling, a pregnant female and two hatchlings have been found, which means the aggressive reptiles have set up house.
More dangerous than even Burmese pythons—which are known to eat alligators (alligator-python picture)—the African pythons are "so mean, they come out of the egg striking," said Kenneth Krysko, senior herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
"This is just one vicious animal."
So far the giant snakes have been found only in a single square mile (2.6 square kilometers) of suburban area west of Miami. Pet breeders unprepared for the pythons' ferocity may have released them, Krysko said.
What's "really scary" is that the new invaders only have to cross the road to enter Everglades National Park, where Burmese pythons have already eaten thousands of native animals, he said.
With the addition of the rock python, Florida is now an established home-away-from-home for three large alien constrictors—including the Burmese species and the boa constrictor—according to wildlife biologist Robert Reed, who studies invasive reptiles for the U.S. Geological Survey in Fort Collins, Colorado.
(The Florida python crisis will be covered in a future episode of Explorer on the U.S. National Geographic Channel. The National Geographic Channel is part-owned by the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)
Pythons Threaten Mice and Men
In its native habitat, sub-Saharan Africa, the African rock python eats small mammals, antelope, warthog, herons, and other animals.
In Florida the African snake might "eat almost any warm-blooded animal that is big enough to ingest," as the Burmese python does, USGS's Reed said.
"Dozens of species of native wildlife, from white-tailed deer to 6-foot [183-centimeter] alligators to birds, have been found in the digestive tracts of Burmese pythons in Florida," said Reed, who is also working with the Florida museum's Krysko on the Florida python problem.
Also like the Burmese python, the African snake is a constrictor. Lacking poison, it kills animals by encircling and literally squeezing the life out of them.
(Related: See a Burmese python digesting a pregnant sheep.)
Florida wildlife may not be the only creatures at risk. In Africa, rock pythons are known to have attacked humans, Krysko said.
Hidden in a Florida swamp, he added, the African python "could strike you and you wouldn't even know it was there."
Python + Python = Hybrid Supersnake?
African pythons have likely already made it into the Everglades, Krysko said. If so, it shouldn't be long before they encounter their Burmese cousins.
If the two python species mate, they may spawn a hybrid species, as has happened in captivity. And because of a biological phenomenon called hybrid vigor, there's an off chance the resulting snakes could be hardier, more powerful predators—assuming they're not sterile, as many hybrids are—USGS's Reed said.
"We can't rule out the possibility," Reed said, "that the introduction of genes from a different species might do something that would allow [the rock pythons] to be even more effective at persisting in Florida and perhaps expanding."
Worse Than the Burmese Python?
The rock python's expansion mirrors the Burmese snake's explosion for some Florida conservationists—and a chance to learn from past mistakes.
"The thing that scares me the most is that this could be another Burmese python," said Kristina Serbesoff-King, invasive species program manager for the nonprofit Nature Conservancy in Florida. (Read biologist Stuart Pimm's take on tackling the Florida python crisis.)
In a 1994 report the Florida Department of Environmental Protection sounded the alarm about the explosion of invasive species in the state, whose warmth and major international ports put it at particular risk.
The report specifically named the African rock python as a threat to pets, native wildlife, and small children. The advisory, however, predicted that in Florida the African snake would be unable to breed in the wild.
"Here we are, 15 years later, and that whole ounce-of-prevention story is so glaring," Serbesoff-King said.
"There's a real opportunity to [mount] an aggressive response" to get rid of the African rock python while the giant snake is still limited to a relatively small area, Serbesoff-King added.
One model, she said, may be the "python patrol" that the Nature Conservancy set up in the Florida Keys. After the Burmese python swam from the Everglades to the island chain and began munching rare Keys wildlife, the team started searching for and capturing the snakes to slow the species' spread.
The Florida museum's Krysko and USGS's Reed both agree that the African snake must be knocked out—and now.
The arrival of the Burmese python "was the biggest, [most] devastating problem that Florida ever could have imagined," Krysko said.
"Now we have a worse one."
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RE: Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by Adamanteus70 on September 14, 2009
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WOW, now everything is pouring out of the woodwork...so far I have not heard about AfricanRocks in Florida, but it does not surprise me to hear it. I hope we do not start finding out there are also Amethystine's, Retic's and Anacondas now with giant breeding populations all over Florida to help push the bill through...
Anyone have new articles on these Rock's that were found in the wild? Something with a older date than this article? For credibility of course...
I hope those are not Mr. Kryskos actual words "really scary" because it does not sound like a educated man speaking, more like the news media making it flavorful.
people who love snakes usually do not call them "scary".
Paul
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RE: Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by tj on September 14, 2009
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I've been waiting for this one. It isn't anything new, so to speak, it just hasn't been reported to the media.... It's not likely you will find articles, because the people who found them aren't out blabbing to everyone...and for good reason....see above hysteria.
There's more, but I don't wanna add fuel...
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RE: Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by Kingetula on September 14, 2009
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I really don't see the issue. (I do but...) NONE of these Pythons have hurt anyone! Ok, so they eat native wildlife... Ummm, I can think of many other animals (plants) on the loose that don't belong in America that eat and kill local wildlife and plants but no drum beating over those animals/plants
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RE: Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by lanceheads on September 14, 2009
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They can't Doug.
(release salties) because the acutus will suffer, or worst yet, hydridize!
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RE: Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by pictigaster1 on September 14, 2009
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10 YEARS MAN WILL DESTROY ENOUGH LAND THAT IT WILL ALL BALANCE OUT ANY WAY.I WISH WE HAD WILD PYTHONS IN TEXAS HOW COOL.
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RE: Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by Kingetula on September 14, 2009
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Florida is more worried about the F-ing Pythons! If they put the same effort into saving the Indigo I might have more simpthy, honestly the only reason I give a crap is because I hope it's a good enough decoy to keep them off the Venomous back. Yeah, I care what effect the Pythons have on the Everglades and the wildlife, don't get me wrong but what done is done. Curious, does the Government put this much effort into killing off Killer Bee's from Africa? (Seriously, I don't know and maybe that is my answer. I don't hear the war drums much on that subject) Don't killer bee's kill off the honey bee's or at least take over the hive? How about Cuban Anoles? I use to have a bunch of Green Anoles around my house and over the past 4 years or so the freaking Cuban Anoles have taken over. Once in a while I see a green anole but not like I once did. (I use to see the Cubans fighting the green anoles, I guess I know what happened) Where is the fight to get rid of Cuban anoles? Fair is fair, or not. I'm sure we could list invasive species that harm our local wildlife but no one cares. This drum beat about Pythons is BS!
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RE: Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by Buzztail1 on September 14, 2009
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Blah blah blah
As far as I am concerned, the worst invasive species (ither than man) is the common housecat which destroys every wild creature that they come in contact with.
The latest method for dealing with feral cats in Florida?
Catch them, spay/neuter them, and then re-release them so that more cats don't come in and fill their niche and then breed.
And that helps out all the wildlife that they are killing how?
In my entire life I have seen maybe half a dozen African Rocks for sale at shows and shops. They are just not a mainstay of the herp industry. To say that they have probably been released by someone who was unprepared for them as a pet is very narrow minded and media hysteria oriented.
Just my personal opinions.
R/
Karl
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RE: Burms move over, Rocks r next target
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by lanceheads on September 14, 2009
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wow! You need to get out more Karl! LOL!
For years at Daytona, Bob Clark and others had African Rocks on their tables.I know at the 2004 show, Bob had 20 or so, because he bought them from a breeder friend of mine that lives in Rockaway Beach, Mo. Strictly also had them on their tables, courtesy of Mark Lucas.
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