WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The estimated tens of thousands of invasive Burmese pythons populating Florida's Everglades National Park pose a low risk to people in the park, officials say.
An assessment by U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service scientists looking at five incidents that involved humans and Burmese pythons over a 10-year period found all five involved pythons striking at biologists who were conducting research in flooded wetlands, a USGS release reported Thursday.
"Visitor and staff safety is always our highest priority at Everglades National Park," park Superintendent Dan Kimball said. "Our guidance to visitors with respect to Burmese pythons is the same as for our native wildlife -- please maintain a safe distance and don't harass the wildlife."
Although there have been numerous instances of Burmese pythons biting people who provoked them by attempting to capture or kill them, this assessment examined only unprovoked strikes directed at people, officials said.
"The strikes did not appear to be defensive, but were more likely were associated with aborted feeding behavior," USGS wildlife biologist and herpetologist Bob Reed said. "Pythons usually direct defensive strikes at the front of a person, not from the side or rear, as all of these strikes were.
"Additionally, Burmese pythons rely on being secretive and evading detection as their primary means of avoiding interactions with people, and typically don't strike until provoked."
Two of the attacks resulted in very minor injuries from the pythons' teeth and none involved constriction, the researchers said.
