Just what the wildlife of the south needs...

not a surprise on the hybridizing...and it wouldn't surprise me if they were hybridized by humans before release or on their own....humans as a whole haven't been very good stewards of our planet lately.

One study I read a year or so back said that 95% of the mammals have disappeared. This particular study did roadside counts of roadkill, night time camera counts of critters crossing the roads down there and something else that eludes me right now. But they had been doing this study long term to try to determine the effect the snakes were having on the small mammals and the number of mammals they saw (small stuff like bunnies, armadillos, raccoons, rabbits, bobcats) dropped 95% over the length of the study as the population of the snakes increased.

Gotta love a state that has known for the better part of 20 years that the snakes are a MAJOR problem but they decide they wanna study and see just how big of a major problem and then when they get the results, wait around and twiddle their thumbs before attempting to do anything about it....I know a good number of snakes have been removed by the professional hunters they have hired but I don't know how many and I would bet that it's not even a drop in the bucket numbers wise.
 
This an ecological disaster of enormous proportions. From what I have heard, and as Dani indicated, the small mammal population in the area where these things have spread is now almost non-existent.
My prediction is that as temps continue go up and our winters along the Gulf & Atlantic coasts get milder, they will gradually spread across the entire Gulf Coast and down into Mexico and north into South Carolina.
Throw in massive eutrophication of the Lake Okeechobee/Kissimmi system causing massive fish, turtle and marine mammal die-offs and the other 500+ invasive species already present in Florida and you have one human-induced screwed up ecosystem.
And don't forget that citrus greening destroying that whole industry, along with home-grown citrus as well.
 
It has been and will continue to be a very serious problem, with no long term solution. I wouldn't want to be sitting in a turkey swamp at first light playing with a locator call...with a 20' python trying to decide what the vibrations I was creating were all about!
 
Living in SW Fl the disaster is unreal. I'm talking red tide and blue green algae. These are fed by pollutants to the point of large dead zones in the Gulf, beaches you can't go to, and now affecting humans with the toxins. Our neighbor is a pharmacist and she says many people with respiratory problems.
This to will spread north.
Nothing done for years 850 square miles that was once Everglades now sugar cane. Look at satellite photos of the area South of lake O.
Ken
 
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