A Real Life Scenario of the Anaconda Films?

The Florida Everglades is the largest subtropical wetland in North America. It is a key component for the conservation of biodiversity. This area provides habitat for many species of animals and plants that can only be found in these wetlands and no where else in the world. Since this ecosystem is so valuable, any large change to it could potentially have serious positive or negative effects. One thing that is considered a large change to an ecosystem is the introduction of an invasive species. In this case, it would the the introduction of the invasive Burmese Python to the Everglades. These snakes have been able to adapt and breed successfully out in the Everglades. But why is this a bad thing? The snakes are just doing what any other animal does to survive right? Why could this situation potentially be catastrophic?

 First, Some History on the Burmese Python
These large snakes are originally from south Asia. They were brought over to North America through the pet trade and were considered very popular, exotic pets. There were many facilities in Florida that were dedicated to breeding these snakes for the purpose of selling them as pets. However, in 1992 Hurricane Andrew hit and destroyed one of these facilities near the Florida Everglades National Park. All snakes that were housed in this building were released into the wild and almost none of them were able to be retrieved. This event was a key contributor to the presence of the overall population of pythons in the Everglades today. Genetic studies on captured pythons have found that all of them are genetically related to those that were released from the destroyed breeding facility. These pythons are also released illegally by pet owners who cannot handle caring for these large snakes once they start to mature. It is currently estimated that there are over 30,000 of these pythons somewhere in the Everglades

Some Reasons Why These Snakes Are a Problem
1. They Eat Everything: These snakes literally will try to eat anything. You name a critter, and you can likely to find it in the digestive track of a Burmese python. Autopsies have been done at the University of Florida and they have found rabbits, squirrels, birds, deer, bobcats, and even alligators in the stomachs of these generalist reptiles. Some of these species, like the American alligator and bobcat, would not have a risk of predation in adulthood in the naturally occurring ecosystem. The problem with this is that these species may not have evolved any protection mechanisms or behaviors to help avoid pedation from these novel predators. Studies done from wildlife researchers have even linked a decline in mammal species due to predation from these pythons which can also be problematic for future population sizes.
2. Compete Heavily with Other Species: The Burmese python is a generalist with a wide range or resource consumption. This range has the potential to interfere with other species and in turn can outcompete native species that are found in the Everglades. This is very detrimental to species that are specialists because they have no alternative resources to fall back on if they are outcompeted. The major drawback though is that many endangered species are specialists, so the presence of these pythons can push back conservation efforts. Burmese python hatchlings are also large and can outcompete the native hatchling species by killing them and also being better at avoiding predators.

These are just some general reasons that these snakes are a problem that needs to be addressed. Other reasons include their adaptive abilities to develop new behaviors and the possible threat to people. There are currently many debates on how to handle these invasive species, which is a major topic between conservationists and researchers.