In West Palm Beach Florida, a large population of huge pythons lots of them former pets turned loose by their owners when they got too big appear to be
wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other
mammals in the Everglades, a study says.
The study,
found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically as
much as 99 percent, in some cases in areas where pythons and other
large, non-native constrictor snakes are known to be residing.
Scientists fear the pythons could disrupt the food chain and upset the Everglades' environmental balance in ways very difficult to predict.
A Burmese python is seen in south Miami, FL in 2005. Across southern Florida, rabbits, raccoons, bobcats and foxes have been disappearing at dramatic rates over the past decade.
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