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African rock python found near Everglades
9/30/2009 9:48:32 AM
The largest snake in Africa, a powerful constrictor that consumes goats, wart hogs and crocodiles, has been found east of the Everglades, raising the possibility that it is breeding in the wild in a state already overrun with nonnative wildlife.
Authorities are investigating the discovery of three African rock pythons in western Miami-Dade County over the past few months, including a juvenile and a female with eggs.
Although state wildlife officials hope these were simply released pets, they are taking seriously the danger that a second nonnative constrictor has established itself in the state alongside the Burmese python, now estimated to number in the thousands in Everglades National Park.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission plans to send officers to the area of Tamiami Trail east of Krome Avenue, where the snakes were found this summer.
"We're not sure whether it's someone releasing them or not," said Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the state wildlife commission. "It's enough to be concerned. We are sending our people to look through the area to determine the extent of it."
Experts say the danger to people is remote, but there have been fatal attacks. A 10-year-old boy was killed and eaten by an African rock python in 2002 in South Africa. And in 1999, a pet African rock python in Centralia, Ill., slipped out of its enclosure and strangled a 3-year-old boy.
A more realistic danger is to South Florida's environment, where nonnative species can consume wildlife, displace native predators and cause unpredictable changes to already stressed wild lands.
Lt. Lisa Wood, of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Venom Response Team, found two of the snakes. One night in late May, investigating a report of a giant snake at the intersection of Coral Way and 147th Avenue, she found a female about nine feet long injured by a vehicle. The snake contained about three dozen eggs.
"Had she made it across the road, there would have been quite a lot of babies hatched," Wood said.
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