Florida Everglades Essay

In recent years, invasive species have become a significant concern to ecologists in many ecosystems around the globe. Specifically, the explosive of non-native Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) in the Florida Everglades has become a major concern among ecologists and the general public alike. While it is generally accepted that this population has stemmed from the escape of these snakes from the exotic pet trade (Pyron et al., 2008), and that the snakes have been able to flourish due to the climatic similarities between South Florida and their native regions of subtropic Southeast Asia, scientists are still trying to determine exactly how the python population in the Everglades has managed to become so successful, which is being done by

Despite there being an average of more than one million visitors to Everglades National Park each year, there have only been five unprovoked attacks on humans reported between 2006 and 2012 (Reed and Snow, 2014.) Each of these attacks were on scientists who were looking for these snakes in remote areas of the park, and all were thought to have been cases of “mistaken identity,” where the snake identified the humans as potential prey items. Only two of these attacks led to the victims being hospitalized, and none of these attacks progressed to constriction or serious injury (Reed and Snow, 2014.) All other reported attacks on humans were provoked, and occurred when the humans were either trying to capture the snake or was otherwise provoking the snake to strike. Despite this extremely low number of unprovoked attacks, the media often portrays these snakes as a much greater threat to human safety than they actually are. While this heightened level of public concern over the pythons is not necessarily detrimental, the public concern about these snakes is certainly misplaced. It will likely prove useful, however, for ecologists to have the backing of the public when trying to implement a plan to limit the growth of the