Please Read: New threat to our way of life: giant pythons

[mwedgley]

This is a copy of an article I just read by and irresponsible reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle regarding burmese pythons. I feel this is really great timing considering we are already on the defense due to fish and wildlife. I am going to include the article as well as my letter to the author an the authors address. Please help me to bombard him and his supervisor with letters.
Here is the web address
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../MNABV5PP3.DTL
and this is the article copy and pasted



New threat to our way of life: giant pythons
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 21, 2008

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In addition to everything else to worry about, now comes the Burmese python.

The giant snakes are slithering from Florida toward the Bay Area, very slowly to be sure, but inexorably. And they can strangle and eat an entire alligator.

The U.S. Geological Survey released a map Wednesday showing that the Bay Area has comfortable climatic conditions for the python. It also said the reptile, which prefers to swallow its prey in one gulp, is "highly adaptable to new environments" and cannot be stopped.

The snakes weigh up to 250 pounds and slither at a rate of 20 miles per month, according to USGS zoologist Gordon Rodda. They are not staying put. In fact, one of them has already slithered about 100 miles toward San Francisco.

"We have not yet identified something that would stop their spreading to the Bay Area," Rodda said.

If pet pythons were introduced into the wild in California by irresponsible pet owners, as happened in Florida, they could become established here even faster, without need of a cross-country journey.

The Burmese python is one of several nonnative giant constrictor snakes - believed to be former pets - that have been introduced and then established themselves in Florida's Everglades National Park. Biologists estimate 30,000 nonnative giant snakes live in the Everglades, perhaps more. Some have begun appearing in areas outside the park, alarming biologists and also people who don't care for snakes.

The snake that managed to slither 100 miles turned up on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in south central Florida. Another python made it as far as Vero Beach, Fla., on the Atlantic coast. Vero Beach is the spring training site for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the team has not reported any casualties, although its pitching staff could use help. Other on-the-move pythons have journeyed to Key Largo, where Humphrey Bogart once battled Edward G. Robinson.

At 20 miles a month, a determined Burmese python from Florida could arrive in San Francisco as early as August 2020.

"It would be exceptional for one animal to be that unidirectional in its movement, but it's mathematically possible," Rodda said.

The snake's cross-country crawl would be made easier by the large population of beavers along the way, Rodda said.

"Beavers would be a very tasty treat for them," Rodda said. "No beaver would be safe from a python."

The natural enemies of the python are lions, tigers and other large cats. There are few free-roaming African lions and tigers between Florida and San Francisco, the geological survey said. And the absence of alligators outside Florida can only help the snakes on their journey west, although it's a complicated relationship - while pythons eat alligators, alligators also eat pythons.

"A large alligator will eat a small python," Rodda said. "But we are not recommending you import alligators into California. That would not be a good idea."

Along with the climate map, the geological survey also released a fearsome photograph showing just what the Bay Area is in for. In the picture, a 20-foot-long python is encircling and attempting to strangle a full-grown alligator, while the alligator is doing its best to swallow the python. It is not for the faint of heart.

The snakes also like to eat rodents, deer and other mammals. Small Florida deer have been turning up inside the digestive tracts of Everglades pythons, which has alarmed deer lovers and also the deer.

As for other potential prey, human beings - like rodents, beavers and deer - are mammals, government scientists confirmed.

According to the new USGS map, the python would find about one-third of the United States - including much of California - to be comfortable for its expansion. In California, the only safe places to avoid the migrating pythons would be the colder areas - the Sierra, the Cascades or the North Coast. Such remote areas, however, could not support every panicked Californian seeking to avoid the giant snakes.

The control of nonnative species is an increasing problem for local biologists, who are currently battling the dread zebra mussel and the voracious northern pike. The mussel is threatening to clog Bay Area reservoirs, and pike are gobbling Northern California salmon and trout. Some studies have said the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the most-invaded ecosystem on the planet, with hundreds of introduced species that endanger native critters.

USGS researchers say pet owners must be responsible about snakes, especially when they no longer want them. There is nothing bad about snakes, the misunderstanding in a certain garden notwithstanding. Snakes are just being snakes. It's up to people to exercise their free will about snakes, which is the oldest lesson in the book.

"Americans are wealthy enough to possess exotic pets and ethical enough to decide the right thing to do when they can no longer keep them," Rodda said.

Releasing them into the wild is a very bad idea.

"Nobody wants to screw up the environment," Rodda said. "But that's what's happening."

Burmese python facts
Size: They can grow to 250 pounds and stretch over 23 feet.

Popular pets: They're often released into the wild by irresponsible owners.

Lifestyle: When young, the pythons spend much of their time in trees. In adulthood, their weight makes tree-climbing too difficult.

Food: They survive on small mammals and birds but have been known to eat deer and alligators.

Eggs: They lay up to 100 at a time.

E-mail Steve Rubenstein at srubenstein@sfchronicle.com.

and here is my letter to him

Mr. Rubenstein

This article is very irresponsible. In your reporting you it is clear to me that one, you have a problem with snakes, and two you either did not do your homework or you just ignored the facts and stated what you feel would cause the most fear. Either way it is very irresponsible reporting. Had you stated facts you would have included that there is no way possible for these snakes to make the journey here providing the extreme temperatures along the way that include the mojave, and the sierra's. There are very few places in the United States where these snakes can flourish and Florida is one of the few. Your article makes Snake fans seem like we are irresponsible as if we let them go when in fact much of the problem in Florida is do to major hurricanes where even zoos have lost their large snake stock. It also puts fear into people about all pythons even though a ball python gets no larger than 4-5 feet. Even still did you even check how many human fatalities there have been from burmese pythons. I think you'd be surprised to find out that there have only been about 3 reported in the whole world in all of history and they were children by wild pythons not captive bred. What really dissapoints me is that we the snake loving community are already facing a challenge with fish and wildlife department that may put keeping any and all species of the boidae family which include pythons and boa on the list of banned animals. It is sad to see that someone with as much influence as you would use their power to satisfy there on snake hating agenda. I will be posting your ad as well as your contact info and your supervisors contact info on as many snake forums as I can. I appreciate your time.
Michael Wedgley

[Skiploder]

I think the author was mixing a bit of sarcasm and humor in there with some actual facts

For example: the 20 miles per month thing, the Dodgers not reporting any casualties, the beavers........etc.

The problem is that even at the Sfgate site, some people are getting it and others aren't. Which means that while some people may see the dry attempt at humor, others are going to be actually scared that like killer bees, a stampede of marauding burmese pythons are making their way west - time dependent on how many beavers they encounter along the way.

[mwedgley]

I think the author was mixing a bit of sarcasm and humor in there with some actual facts

For example: the 20 miles per month thing, the Dodgers not reporting any casualties, the beavers........etc.

The problem is that even at the Sfgate site, some people are getting it and others aren't. Which means that while some people may see the dry attempt at humor, others are going to be actually scared that like killer bees, a stampede of marauding burmese pythons are making their way west - time dependent on how many beavers they encounter along the way.

I don't know I didn't sense any sarcasm. It sounded serious to me. But even if it was sarcastic I also sensed him trying to cause fear of these snakes.

[mwedgley]

well now reading it again I could see how maybe it could be sarcastic but I took it serious so many would. But still I'm not a convinced it is sarcastic.

[Texas Dan]

Lol, I don't know if this is even a real article..

"As for other potential prey, human beings - like rodents, beavers and deer - are mammals, government scientists confirmed."

haha.

[littleindiangirl]

Small Florida deer have been turning up inside the digestive tracts of Everglades pythons, which has alarmed deer lovers and also the deer.

I dont know how to take the article either...

[JKBReptiles]

It's easy you take it with a rainbow sash and and a purple feather boa.... after all its San Fransisco....

[Repti-Rob]

I have caught five Burmese pythons in the glades as we have been herping and two of those were albino's but I haven't seen one in the park big enough to eat a deer largest was about 13 foot and mean as hell! Sarcasm or not this is poor journalism and kind of seems like a scare tatic shame on the journalist

[JKBReptiles]

I have caught five Burmese pythons in the glades as we have been herping and two of those were albino's but I haven't seen one in the park big enough to eat a deer largest was about 13 foot and mean as hell! Sarcasm or not this is poor journalism and kind of seems like a scare tatic shame on the journalist

I agree with that thought, however on a serious note there are small locales across the country like the glades that can harbor non native species, I'm not as concerned about large constrictors as I am about some of the hardier venomous/arboreal stuff being able to propagate and seriously hurt the avian population of the country.. I think of Guam and the Brown tree snake epidemic when I read articles like this..

[Ben_Renick]

That was the most rediculous article I have read on this matter so far. There is not one fact in there. 30,000 non-native giant snakes?! Last I heard there was a record of 200, and that's over the last 10 years. I'm sorry, I couldn't even finish the article. Fake or not, it's not what we need...