Because female pythons can lay 50-100 eggs per year—and the creatures have no natural predator in the region—their threat continues to escalate.
How the Burmese python took over Florida
Native to Southeast Asia, pythons were first brought to the United States as exotic pets. When the exotic pet trade boomed in the 1980s, Miami became host to thousands of such snakes.
Because pythons can grow to such unmanageable sizes, it was inevitable that some irresponsible owners would release the snakes into the wild. But most experts believe the pythons established a reproducing population in the Everglades sometime after Hurricane Andrew—a category 5 storm that devastated the state in August 1992. It was during that storm that a python breeding facility was destroyed, releasing countless snakes into the nearby swamps.
Today, authorities have no idea how many pythons occupy the area, in large part because the Everglades—in their vast inaccessibility—are so hard to conduct surveys in. And the mottled brown snakes blend well into the scrubby environment.
“It could be tens of thousands, or it could be hundreds of thousands,” says Rory Feeney, the bureau chief of land resources at the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)—a federal agency that helps spearhead Everglades conservation efforts. The agency, Feeney adds, has been actively “dealing with invasive pythons for over a decade.”
“**OPEN SEASON ON PYTHONS**: Because the Burmese python is such a recognized nuisance to the Everglades ecosystem, the state of Florida has removed barriers to hunting them, and even set up incentive programs. Hunters can kill Burmese pythons and other invasive reptiles on private lands all year, [without a permit or hunting license](https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/python/removing/). As of 2018, hunting regulations have eased up on some public lands as well: Hunters can work without a permit or license, although there are some restrictions and guidance around the humane methods. For more information on how hunters become approved for official python eradication efforts, go to the [South Florida Water Management District's Python Elimination Program](https://www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/python-program).”
Greatest ecological threat to the region