BURMESE PYTHONS IN THE EVERGLADES

Synthesis of Literature Regarding the Invasion of Burmese Pythons

in the Florida Everglades

Caroline Fettes

Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences, GCSU

ENSC 4950: Invasion Ecology

Dr. Gregory Glotzbecker

November 1, 2022
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Section I: Introduction and Invasion Hypotheses

The Burmese python was first recognized as a reproducing population in the Everglades

National Park during the early 2000s, after the discovery of an active python nest in May 2006

which confirmed the existence of breeding pairs (Cherkiss et al., 2016). By this time, the pythons’

estimated population size was already numbering in the thousands; current approximations have

determined that there may be anywhere from 100,000 to 1,000,000 pythons residing within South

Florida. However, in order to have reached such an enormous count, the initial introduction of this

nonnative snake to the Floridian peninsula is thought to have occurred potentially decades

beforehand – commonly, studies have produced several different hypotheses that, with varied

invasion conditions, can reasonably point to an introduction anywhere from the late 1970s to post-

1990. The plausibility of each of the six hypotheses is derived from the size and age distributions

of the introduced propagules (Dorcas et al., 2011).

Hypothesis I contends that it is possible for the pythons to have been introduced to Florida

as early as the 1970s, but in order for the delay between introduction and recognition to occur over

such a long time span, it is necessary for the propagule to be small and generally young. Pythons

reach sexual maturity around four to five years of age; reproductive capacity is dependent on the

length of the individual itself; males are ready to breed when they are at least 7ft long, but females

must reach 9ft before they are capable of reproducing, so the introduction of a young propagule

would significantly delay a boom in population while the snakelets mature. Furthermore, the small

size would mean that the snakes start with a lower population density, and it would take much

longer to reach the detection threshold.

Hypothesis II sets the time of introduction between 1980 and 1993, a relatively large

window. This hypothesis postulates that the original propagule would be similarly young, but
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much bigger, allowing for a higher starting density. While the same initial delay on reproduction

would still apply, it would be possible for this initial propagule to explode quite suddenly once

they reach maturity; this explains the gap in time between these first two hypotheses. The thirteen-

year range of years is accounted for by the fact that the idea of what constitutes a “large” propagule

is not specified, and so the margin of error on this hypothesis is subsequently wider.

Dorcas et al.’s Hypothesis III flips the size and age of the propagule in Hypothesis II –

examining how a small adult propagule could have been released during the mid-1980s. This

propagule would encounter the opposite problems as the previous propagule; they would already

be of reproductive age, and thus would have no immediate barrier to population growth, but the

low population density would still inhibit rapid increase. Thus, the timeline for this hypothesis is

estimated to have been in the mid-1980s.

Hypothesis IV posits the reverse scenario of Hypothesis I, with the introduction of a large,

adult propagule. This kind of propagule would have the potential to multiply extremely quickly,

especially considering that while these pythons only reproduce once annually, they are known to

lay clutches with an average of 36 eggs, with several females having been observed to lay up to

107 eggs at a time (Cherkiss et al., 2016). Furthermore, Burmese pythons are deeply protective of

their clutches – the female will not leave the nest even to eat for the duration of their gestation

period, meaning that the threats to prenatal snakelets are few and far between. As this is the

theoretical hypothesis with the fastest growth rate, the proposed time of introduction for these

snakes would have been post-1990 at the earliest.

Hypothesis V deviates from the rest in one particular way: instead of a single release event,

this hypothesis revolves around chronic releases of small, adult propagules beginning in the 1980s

and continuing indefinitely. Small infusions of pythons into the overall population would not only
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aid in raw growth, but would also contribute to the genetic diversity of the population,

reintroducing genes that may have been lost during the natural selection process of the original

propagule, and as such bolster its hardiness, making it more difficult to exterminate.

The final hypothesis, Hypothesis VI, is the least probable of the lot to have occurred. It

claims that a small, young propagule could have established in the Everglades during the 1990s –

on the contingency that this group had an unusually high rate of survivorship (x > 50%, and higher

thereafter). This would mitigate much of the effect of the smaller propagule size, but it would still

be unlikely that young pythons could have reproduced in such quantities over a shortened time

period.

Section II: Adaptations and Ecological Effects

However the Burmese pythons established in the Everglades, their success has been

bolstered by a plethora of advantageous characteristics. This species of snake is particularly long-

lived, averaging around twenty years after surviving infancy with the oldest python having been

recorded at twenty-eight years old. Their sheer body mass is also impressive, able to tip the scale

at over 200lbs and more than 23ft long (Castoe et al., 2011). The snakes consume a varied,

generalist diet, frequently described as eating anything that can fit in their mouths – a trait they

share with the cane toad, another invasive species currently plaguing the Sunshine State (Fitz et

al., 2016). Furthermore, Burmese pythons are excellent swimmers, and able to hold their breath

for up to half an hour. Their most impressive adaptation, however, is their ability to endure extreme

physiological and metabolic fluctuations.

Often known as “physiological remodeling”, the Burmese python has the capacity to digest

meals much larger than their own size by ramping up their metabolism and enlarging the mass of
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their heart, liver, pancreas, small intestine, and kidneys by 40-150% in only a 24-to-48-hour

window (University of Texas at Arlington, 2013). This systematic organ enlargement, particularly

the cardiac hypertrophy, is facilitated by a striking 160-fold increase in plasma triglyceride content

(Adams et al., 2015), and enables the snakes to sustain a 44-fold increase in metabolic rate for the

duration of the organ enlargement. Their organs return to their normal size after roughly ten days,

and their infrequent feeding schedules grant their bodies a healthy recovery period before their

next meal.

The climate of the Everglades is also a contributing factor to the pythons’ success in

establishing a large reproducing population. Myanmar, formerly Burma, is situated at a lower

latitude than the Floridian peninsula, and its pythons are indigenous throughout the Indochina and

Malay Peninsulas, and up into northeastern India and southern China (Mehrtens, 1987). This range

creeps into the latitudinal region closer to Florida’s, and with the addition of the Gulf Stream to

keep the Everglades humid and warm, the two ranges are highly similar – enough that the Burmese

python encountered very little abiotic resistance, having traveled from a habitat that almost

mirrored the new one.

The pythons’ newfound prevalence in the Everglades has brought with it a slew of negative

consequences for the existing ecosystem. Notably, a severe decline has coincided with the pythons’

invasion. The frequency of raccoon observations have decreased by 99.3%, opossums by 98.9%,

and bobcats by 87.5%; in this individual study, researchers failed to observe rabbits at all (Dorcas

et al., 2011). As these mammals are larger, and tend to be more easily observed, these findings

bode poorly for smaller, less-easily observed mammals, whose populations may have declined

even more dramatically. Mammals, however, are not the only recipients of the pythons’

detrimental effects. Other apex predators in the area – namely, the iconic alligator population – are
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also suffering. Competition from the pythons makes what would be commonplace prey more

scarce for gators, and as ecosystem engineers, alligators are a critical component to the functioning

of the Everglades. Without this crucial species to burrow, creating small ponds, holes, and trails to

provide refuge for wading birds and fish during the dry season, the balance of the ecosystem would

be thrown awry, with the potential for a total collapse (Dorcas et al., 2011). With large enough

fluctuations in community structure, the stage could be set for a devastating trophic cascade to

permanently and fundamentally alter one of the country’s most unique national parks.

Alongside the more visible dips in native populations, a sinister side effect of the python

invasion lurks within the Everglades. Changes in community structure cause subsequent changes

in the behaviors of parasites and pathogens, and the pythons’ induction was no different. The

predation by pythons of the region’s mammals has led Everglades virus (EVEV), a zoonotic

pathogen endemic to Florida, to become more prevalent among host cotton rats. With the decline

of large mammals, mosquitoes have substituted their blood meals with the cotton rats, which now

make up 76.8% of meals as opposed to only 14.6% in 1976, pre-invasion. Much to the detriment

of nearby populations, the cotton rat is an “amplifying” host, which is associated with higher

EVEV infection rates among vector mosquitoes, and therefore elevates the risk for transmission

to humans (Blosser et al., 2021). EVEV is liable to cause clinical encephalitis in humans, a

potentially life-threatening inflammation of the brain (National Health Service, U.K.).

Unfortunately, the ecological consequences have very real implications for the Floridian

economy. Estimates have measured a python feeding event to result in a cost of $3,495.50, which

can amount to $83,892 annually to account for the predation of a single snake. In areas with a high

concentration of pythons and wood storks, which were valued highly due to their status as an

indicator species and placement on the Endangered Species List, the cost associated with a feeding
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event can skyrocket to $250,000, and up to $6mil per year (Engeman et al., 2007). Efforts to

conserve the wood storks in the everglades have already put a $101.2mil dent in the Floridian

wallet. While fines are in place to discourage the release of Burmese pythons into the wild, they

are not sufficient to recover the damage from loss of wildlife. Even with the most conservative

estimates of python population and associated costs, the annual hit to the Floridian economy would

total up to $8.3892bil; with gross state product approximately $1.3tril, this would account for a

.65% reduction in profits. Assuming the most generous (albeit unlikely in practicality) estimates,

it is possible for the pythons to accumulate a whopping $6tril debt, dwarfing the third-largest

economy in the United States.

Section III: Future Spread and Control

While the Everglades are facing the brunt of the Burmese python invasion, future

conditions may allow for their range to expand northward. Presently, python physiology is capable

of withstanding cooling temperatures up to the border of South Carolina; with the changing

climate, and evolution of python thermoregulatory behaviors, and a lack of effective control or

eradication measures, the invasion front may edge through the entirety of the Southern United

States – along the Eastern Coast through Virginia, pushing westward along the tops of Georgia,

Alabama, and Mississippi, sweeping over the entirety of Texas and dwindling along the coast of

California (Dorcas et al., 2011). Their potential habitat extends into Mexico and the Yucatán

Peninsula, endangering the diverse, unique native fauna of several other countries and spreading

EVEV to a major swath of land.

Thus far, researchers have yet to implement a successful strategy for the extermination of

Burmese pythons in Florida. Three major attempts have emerged over the years, though only one

has continued to modern day. In 2011, researchers discovered that the administration of
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acetaminophen in high doses (x > 80mg) has a mortality rate of 100% in adult Burmese pythons,

and even half of that dose is lethal in 85.7% of adult pythons, making it an exceptionally effective

toxicant (Mauldin & Savarie, 2011). However, a lack of follow-up studies on this particular

technique of exterminating the species from Florida allows for the logical conclusion to be made

that this undertaking would be unrealistic to perform. It would be dangerous to the native fauna,

especially other reptiles, which are key to ecosystem functioning, to set traps or release prey for

the pythons laced with the fatal acetaminophen dosage. Should the other herpetofauna fall victim

to those measures instead of the intended targets, results could be devastating for the already

tenuously-stable environment. Conversely, if the pythons needed to be caught in order to be dosed,

the administration of acetaminophen would be wasteful, considering that the traps’ personnel could

have simply euthanized the snakes on-site instead of retrieving them for death in a laboratory.

Trapping the pythons has also been explored as a potential remedy to the invasion. A

medium-scale trial run of 6,053 traps baited with live rats was set in the Frog Pond area of the

Everglades, a microcosm of the national park which is known for its particularly high density of

Burmese pythons. Unfortunately, only three pythons in total were caught, an abysmal success rate

for an operation of that size (Cherkiss et al., 2011). Part of the failure of this experiment can be

attributed to the pythons’ cryptic nature, and thus it is difficult to deduce the best placement of

traps. With modifications, the traps have become moderately more successful, but still have a dire

need for alteration should researchers hope to control the python population with this method

alone.

A possible solution to the pythons’ unknown congregation sites may lie in the “Judas

Method”, in which reproductive-age male pythons would be microchipped with GPS implants and

rereleased into the wild during breeding season. As these pythons travel to find females,
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researchers will be able to systematically remove those females from the population, significantly

reducing the Burmese pythons’ fecundity in the area (Gibbons, 2019). There is very little literature

on this specific method, as it is still in experimentation, but it is theoretically sound, and scientists

are optimistic that its results will be useful for the control of the invasion.

The prevailing form of eradication is by far the simplest: hunting. Floridians are

incentivized by monetary compensation to hunt and kill Burmese pythons, with payments starting

at $50 per body and increasing with the size of the caught snakes. Hunts have become somewhat

of a spectacle in the region, with numerous widely-publicized competitions – prizes are awarded

to hunters who bag the heaviest and longest pythons, as well as to those who remove the largest

raw number of snakes from the area. These hunts have done little to dent the overall population of

Burmese pythons, but the media coverage of such events is highly positive and fosters a higher

degree of awareness of the problem in unaffected regions of the mainland United States. With a

spotlight on the issue, it is wholly possible that organizations and agencies dedicated to the

pythons’ removal may receive increased funding or donations, and as a result will be able to

expand their operations to more easily tackle the python problem.

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Works Cited

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Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) in South Florida. BMC Zoology, 6(33).

Burkett-Cadena, N., Blosser, E., & McCleery, R. (2021). Invasive Burmese pythons alter host

use and virus infection in the vector of a zoonotic virus. Communications Biology,

4(804).

Castoe, T., de Koning, J., Hall, K., Gu, W., & Dobry, J. (2011). Sequencing the genome of the

Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus) as a model for studying extreme adaptations

in snakes. Genome Biology, 12(406).

https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/gb-2011-12-7-406

Castoe, T., de Koning, J., Hall, K., & Pollock, D. (2013). The Burmese python genome reveals

the molecular basis for extreme adaptation in snakes. Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, 110(51), 20645–20650. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1314475110

Dorcas, M., Willson, J., & Gibbons, J. (2010). Can invasive Burmese pythons inhabit temperate

regions of the southeastern United States? Biological Invasions, 13(4).

Dorcas, M., Willson, J., Reed, R., & Hart, K. (2012). Severe mammal declines coincide with

proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park. Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences, 109(7), 2418–2422.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1115226109

Gibbons, W. (2019). How does a Judas python betray his mate? University of Georgia.

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srel.uga.edu/outreach/ecoviews/ecoview190707.htm#:~:text=The%20use%20of%20Juda

s%20snakes,be%20removed%20from%20the%20population
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Holbrook, J., & Chesnes, T. (2011). An effect of Burmese pythins (Python molurus bivittatus) on

mammal populations in Southern Florida. Florida Scientist, 74(1), 17–24.

Hoyer, I., Blosser, E., & Acevedo, C. (n.d.). Mammal decline, linked to invasive Burmese

python, shifts host use of vector mosquito towards reservoir hosts of a zoonotic disease.

Biology Letters, 13(10). https://doi.org/English

Miller, M., Kinsella, J., Snow, R., Hayes, M., Falk, B., & Reed, R. (2017). Parasite spillover:

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