Study: Pythons unlikely to spread far

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A recently published study finds that invasive Burmese pythons are unlikely to spread far beyond South Florida.

Researchers from the City University of New York said a report by the U.S. Geological Survey suggesting pythons could spread far north and west of Florida was alarmist, ReptileChannel.com reports. Based on comparisons of U.S. climate to that of the python's native terrain in southeast Asia, the USGS said the giant snakes could live in 32 states.

"By using more complete climate data, in this case 19 variables measuring climatic extremes, averages and seasonal variation, we can make more accurate predictions of species distributions," said Alex Pyron of CUNY. "Combining this climatic data with localities for the Burmese python allows us to create powerful models for predicting suitable habitat for the snakes."

Burmese pythons, one of the world's largest snakes, are known to be breeding in the Florida Everglades. The snakes were imported to the United States as pets and released by owners when they grew too big to handle.

The CUNY study was published in the on-line journal PLoS One.