The Burmese Pythons In The Everglades

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Burmese Pythons Burmese pythons are taking over the Everglades. Because of their power, it is dangerous for humans to hunt them, so they don't have any apex predators in the Everglades. But a balanced ecosystem is okay. But recent snake owners tend to abandon their snakes when they get too big. The Burmese python is a powerful snake with many defenses to help them hunt animals in the Everglades such as possums, raccoons, and birds. The python can eat birds and small mammals. The python can eat these animals because the Burmese python can dislocate its jaw and eat the animals five times the size of its head. But this isn't the only defense. They also kill their prey by squeezing it to death, then eating the prey whole. The snake uses these defenses to scare away big animals or quickly …show more content…
The pythons end up killing a lot of the mammals that the snakes come across. This led to a depleting amount of animals in the area and a growing amount of snakes. In the article “Florida’s Python Hunt” it says that the increase in snakes got so bad they had to have a statewide snake hunt to kill all pythons, not only that there was also a prize for whoever found the longest snake would get $1,000 for either one. This shows how desperate the state was to save their ecosystem from massive bone-crushing snakes. They were willing to pay money to random people to kill snakes. The state made a smart decision though because if the ecosystem is not balanced, it can destroy many animal homes. Not only is the Burmese python affecting the animal population in the Everglades, they are bringing about changes in the population. The conditions are getting so bad that the Florida state has a python hunt and rewards are given to whoever catches the most snakes and the longest snake can win up to $1000