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| Wildflower expert Roger Hammer and Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett examine a large non-native Burmese python found in Everglades National Park. [Photo credit: National Park Service] Hi-Res |
On Saturday, April 19, 2008, Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior Lynn Scarlett participated in a hike into Everglades National Park near Flamingo to view orchids with Roger Hammer (author of Everglades Wildflowers and naturalist with Miami-Dade County), representatives of Audubon of Florida, and Park staff and friends. On the return leg of the hike, while walking through tall grass and heavy thatch near the edge of the mangroves, Deputy Secretary Scarlett spotted a snake moving through a small opening in the grass. She hailed her fellow hikers, and the group was able to remove a 8-9 foot non-native Burmese python from the heavy thatch. Park Rangers subsequently transported the snake to the Park's python lab in Pine Island for further analysis.
While over 250 pythons were found in and near Everglades National Park over the last year, most of these were found along the main park road or in agricultural fields adjacent to the Park; finding pythons in the wild is an extremely rare event.
Park biologists say that the exotic pet trade and pet owners who release pythons into the wilderness are responsible for the existence of the snakes within the Everglades. An invasive species in south Florida, Burmese pythons could find comfortable climatic conditions in roughly a third of the United States according to climate maps developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and released last February. Wildlife managers are concerned that these snakes, which can grow to over 20 feet long and more than 250 pounds, pose a danger to state- and federally listed threatened and endangered species as well as to humans.