Burmese python: Thousands of giant snakes are wreaking havoc on the US environment (7 photos)

The Burmese snake is endangered. It's firmly listed on the Red List, but even that doesn't help much, as its population has fallen by 30% in just the first decade of the 21st century. This is all due to habitat loss and the trapping of the reptiles by local residents. Ironically, it was this very activity that gave them a new home and a minor ecological disaster for Americans.





A Burmese python caught in Florida. One that could eat a deer!

The fact is that pythons were captured not so much for their skins, but for sale as exotic pets. They were sold primarily to Americans, who fell in love with the snakes for their unusual appearance, calm, docile nature, and lack of venom.



First, you get yourself a little one in a cool aquarium...

However, even with these initial assumptions, many American families were unprepared for life with snakes under the same roof. Especially those who bought a cool exotic string the length of a human palm, and a year later received a two-meter living rope. A rope that continued to grow for the next 20 years of its life.





...And then his terrarium eats up half your room.

And those who bought females were doubly lucky. They quickly discovered that their pythons had also begun laying eggs, 20-30 a year, despite having no contact with the male. Almost no one knew that Burmese pythons are capable of parthenogenesis: their unfertilized eggs can develop into clones of the mother!



Owners, you love me so much that I decided to make you my own copy!

Of course, careless and unprepared owners simply released their surplus pythons into the wild, where they died. Usually. But in warm and humid Florida, they survived and created a stable population.



What are you looking at? I'm a twig!

They escaped local predators by hiding in leaf litter, on tree branches, and underwater. Their ability to survive without food for up to 18 (!) months by reducing the size of their intestines and hearts gave them time to adapt to new conditions and find new prey. As a result, Burmese pythons in the United States established a stable population of between 30,000 and 300,000 individuals and became a veritable scourge, destroying all life in their habitat.



The alligator is a well-known symbol of Florida. WAS the symbol of Florida.

In the Everglades, where python populations are at their peak, they have completely wiped out rabbits, opossum and raccoon populations have fallen by 90%, and fox populations by 80%. And US conservationists simply don't know what to do about this creeping menace.



Americans are trapping pythons. But their catches are just a few out of thousands.