Burmese pythons... in Florida?

Yes, it's true. And you can tell from the name that they come from another part of the world, and are non-native to the United States.

This is something I read about awhile ago, and got reinforced on a television program I saw fairly recently. And it's not just the discovery of a handful of pythons that made the news, but is a problem where the population has been estimated in the thousands, maybe tens of thousands. Can you imagine tens of thousands of pythons living wild in Florida?

Some may feel, "So what? If they thrive, they thrive, it's just survival of the fittest, it's just evolution." I may have mentioned in a previous entry that evolution took place over millions of years at a much slower pace, before modern inventions and technology made the world a smaller place. A species of snake that would not have found itself on the other side of the world hundreds of years ago can make it there in mere hours now, as a stowaway on an airplane for instance. And because many people are fascinated with having exotic pets, these snakes wouldn't even have to be stowaways - they could be quite deliberately shipped around the world as a part of commerce. And as happens so often, a pet owner may one day decide that their pet has gotten too big or too much of a hassle to take care of and release it into the wild without thinking about the possible consequences of such an act. Yes, many animals will perish this way, but what if they survive? What if they assimilate and adapt? What if they multiply and thrive?

The television program I watched described how Burmese pythons are very adaptable to environments and have found the United States very much to their liking. It even showed that whereas pythons have adapted to the state of Florida very well, they could very possibly expand their presence to much of the rest of the country, as far west as California, and even up north to the sewers of New York City. It could be just a matter of time.

And as they do, can you imagine what they'll feed on? I wonder what they're finding for sustenance now as it is. Because they're consuming something. Who knows what kind of harm they're doing to the populations of native creatures. Or maybe they're feeding on the countless non-native creatures that have been brought to this country, one problem feeding another. And then even more directly painful to us, are they feeding on our pets?

As I mentioned, many of these species are being brought over legally, but many are also being brought illegally. Which brings (or should bring) newfound respect to the efforts of our U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Freedom is a wonderful concept and one I believe in, but I'm reminded of an old saying: "With freedom comes responsibility." We have to be careful about the stewardship of our planet.