Prometheus 6

Hope you like pythons: Climate conditions in southern U.S. perfect for invasive constrictors' spread
Ted Alvarez on February 21, 2008 11:47 AM

Back around the turn of the century, some genius with a Burmese python realized his chosen pet was a lot more difficult to manage than a goldfish, so he dumped it in the Everglades. Meanwhile, another genius discovered the same thing and also released his or her Burmese python in the Everglades, and — voila! — by 2003, biologists with the park service confirmed an established breeding population of a 20-foot, 300-lb. snake.

But it gets better: See all the green space on the map? According to a new USGS survey, that represents the area of our country that climatically matches the python's historical range from Pakistan to Indonesia. Burmese pythons have already been spotted north and east of the Everglades, so it seems like only a matter of time before these highly adaptable reptiles spread even more.