Giant Pythons Could Spread Quickly Across South

"As if killer bees and kudzu weren't enough, the southern United States may soon have another invasive species to contend with — giant Burmese pythons capable of swallowing deer and alligators whole.

Approximately 30,000 of the big snakes, which can reach 30 feet and 200 pounds, already live wild in Florida's Everglades, thanks to thick-headed pet owners who've released them into the swamps when they've grown too large to keep at home.

But now the U.S. Geological Survey says Florida is not the only place the Burmese python can thrive.

In fact, the big beasts, which are not poisonous and rarely attack humans, could live happily in the entire southern third of the country, from Southern California to Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley and up the Eastern Seaboard to Chesapeake Bay.

All it would take would be enough pet releases in various locations to create a breeding population.

A few years ago, captains Al Cruz and Ernie Jillson of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue department pulled up in front of an apartment building.

A crowd gathered on the grass was watching a 10-foot Burmese python slowly squeeze a large Muscovy duck to death. But the lanky juvenile snake then struggled to get the 12-pound duck down its throat.

Cruz and Jillson, members of Miami-Dade Rescue's specialized Venom 1 unit, wrestled the snake under control as feathers flew. They carted the python away, not to be euthanized but to make sure it ended up where it wouldn't kill native animals or pets.

"Lately it's getting worse," Jillson said. "We're going to find even more of these animals."

In 2004, wildlife researchers found a gory tableau in the Everglades — a 13-foot python had swallowed a six-foot alligator whole. Then the snake's abdomen burst open, killing it and leaving both animals forever conjoined in reptilian mutually assured destruction.

In 2003, when park rangers first confirmed that the pythons were breeding in the Everglades, some experts figured the abundant alligators would keep them in check. No such luck.

"This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw," University of Florida wildlife professor Frank Mazzotti told the Associated Press in 2005 after the famed conjoined-in-death carcasses were found. "Sometimes alligators are going to win, and sometimes the python will win."

Kenney Krysko, a herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville who performs necropsies on every Burmese python caught by the National Park Service, has seen a couple of cases of the snake coming out on top.

"We just found our second alligator," says Krysko, referring to a recent snake examination. "We found them eating lots of wading birds. We found at least one bobcat, and at least one white-tailed deer."

Krysko stopped to correct himself. "It was mostly just some hair remnants and four hooves."

The pythons have extended their range down into the Florida Keys, where they lunch on the endangered Key Largo wood rat."

Yes...there is an "endangered" rat. And the worst part about all of this reptilian tomfoolery?

Ten years from now people will be killing these things to beat the band, and then...

...And then these snakes will be put on the endangered species list and protected. But there'll be at least one place where humans have no fear of treading.

Just as with gators, Hogtown Wood will be big-ass-snake free.