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Burmese pythons are dominating the Everglades

Biologists say that as the snakes proliferate and continue to prey on unsuspecting animals, ecological balance in the Everglades will suffer.

By Brooks Hays
Researchers at the University of Florida examine the largest Burmese python found in Florida to date. Following scientific investigation, the snake will be mounted for exhibition at the museum for about five years, and then returned for exhibition at Everglades National Park. File Photo by UPI/University of Florida/Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History
Researchers at the University of Florida examine the largest Burmese python found in Florida to date. Following scientific investigation, the snake will be mounted for exhibition at the museum for about five years, and then returned for exhibition at Everglades National Park. File Photo by UPI/University of Florida/Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History

EVERGLADES CITY, Fla., March 19 (UPI) -- Florida boasts several hundred invasive species. But one outweighs them all, both literally and figuratively. The Burmese python is a formidable predator, and in recent decades the snake has increasingly come to dominate Florida's Everglades.

A new study -- published this week in the journal Proceedings B -- recently quantified that dominance, showing the species' ability to quickly and ruthlessly decimate small mammal populations native to South Florida.

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Specifically, researchers at the University of Florida and Davidson College tracked a sample population of marsh rabbits in the Everglades via radio collars. After nine months of monitoring the native species, some 77 percent were found to have been eaten by a python.

"All of us were shocked by the results. Rabbit populations are supposed to be regulated by factors other than predation, like drought, disease," study co-author Bob Reed, lead researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey, told CBS News.

"They are so fecund. They are supposed to be hugely resilient to predation," Reed added. "You don't expect a population to be wiped out by predation."

The rabbits involved in the study didn't just disappear into thin air. There was no guessing involved in determining the fate of these rabbits. Researchers tracked radio signals directly to the digestive tracts of local pythons.

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"Every one [of the rabbits] we are saying was eaten by a python, we found inside a python," said lead study author Robert A. McCleery, a researcher at the University of Florida. "It wasn't like, 'I wonder what ate this.' You are looking for your rabbit and you find a python. The radio collar was transmitting from inside the python."

While some species may benefit in the short term from a reduction of small mammals, biologists say that as the snakes proliferate and continue to prey on unsuspecting animals, ecological balance will likely suffer.

"There is a serious ecological problem in Everglades National Park that appears to be spreading," McCleery said.

Of course, growing python numbers isn't a new phenomenon. The ecological threat of this massive invasive species has been well documented. But no control mechanisms -- whether organized hunts or planned poisoning -- have done more than put a small dent in the growing population. Not only are they deadly hunters and prolific reproducers, they're also extremely hard to find in the dense grasses of the Everglades.

"For every one snake you'll find, you can walk by at least 99 without seeing them," Michael Dorcas, a snake expert at Davidson College, told TIME last year.

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As Frank J. Mazzotti, an ecology and biology professor at University of Florida, recently put it to the Washington Post: "How do you win a war if you can't find your enemy? You really have to know what you're doing to even have a low level of detection."

It's estimated there are more than 100,000 pythons in the Everglades.

Until a control strategy is proven effective, conservationists can only hope to contain the snakes and prevent the predator from establishing populations in nearby ecosystems -- like the Florida Keys.

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