Pesky Pythons Not Succumbing to Cold
Officials say cold snap having little effect on invasive species
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LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 25: A Burmese Python is held at Heathrow Airport's Animal Reception Centre on January 25, 2011 in London, England. Many animals pass through the centre's doors ranging from exotic animals such as snow leopards and elephants, snakes and crocodiles, to the more common such as cats and dogs. In 2010 alone the centre processed approximately 10,500 cats and dogs, 1,300 birds, 105,000 day old chicks, 246,000 reptiles, 230 horses and 29 million fish. Most animals are part of zoo transfer schemes, the pet trade, or are pets in transit. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
If the past two years have taught South Florida anything, it's that pythons are resilient.
When organized hunts didn't work to eradicate the invasive species from our ecosystem, mother nature took over in the form of a 12-day cold snap last January.
Scientests say that cold drop reduced the number of pythons in the Florida Everrglades, but not as much as they hoped it would.
David Hallac, the park's biological resources chief, said he forecasted a sharp decline in captured snakes but last year's total of 322 fell just 10 percent from 2009.
"That actually shocked me," Hallac said. "We couldn't believe how many snakes were coming in. At a minimum, I was thinking maybe a 50 percent drop."
While the deep freeze -- the coldest since the 1940s -- helped control the spread of the exotic Burmese species of pythons, it also knocked off several species we might like to keep around.
At least 244 manatees were killed by cold, leading to a one-year record for total deaths, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Service.
A plunge in ocean temperatures killed off corals in shallow waters from Biscayne Bay through much of the Florida Keys and left hundreds of sea turtles dead or stunned and sick. The 100-plus carcasses of rare North American crocodiles represented about 10 percent of the coastal population.
Peter Frezza, Everglades research manager for Audubon of Florida in the Keys, counted roughly 90,000 dead snook over the course of about a dozen trips across Florida Bay and into the Everglades. Snook fishing remains restricted on the Gulf Coast, in Monroe County and in Everglades National Park.
Exotic fish such as Mayan cichlids and spotted tilapia experienced die-offs during the cold snap, but canals and other warmer refuges have sheltered enough of the fish in past freezes to maintain the population, said Kelly Gestring, director of the FWC's Non-Native Fish Research Laboratory in Boca Raton.
Meanwhile, pythons are still turning up in Miami-Dade, including a 13 1/2-foot-long male Burmese python captured by water managers in a canal last week.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 6 Miami
