If I'm not mistaken, isn't the leading cause of death in captive burms from RI? This would suggest to me that either they're more susceptible to it than other species, or they're less able to handle the stresses of the RI.

Either way, I don't see them going much farther north than Florida. Look at the USGS study's map...it has them ranging up as far north as southcentral Pennsylvania!!! If you compare that to a USGS map of average yearly temperatures, it doesn't make any sense that they could survive that far north. On those maps, the only areas that have an average high temp of 75+ is exactly where the burms are found right now... South Florida (Southern Texas is also there, but I don't know if the habitat is right in that area).

Ridiculous.