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Burmese Pythons in the Everglades

Photographs documenting the ongoing efforts to control Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park.

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A pair of endangered wood storks need about 440 pounds of fish during a breeding season to feed themselves and their young. Everglades National Park serves as an important nursery ground for raising their chicks.

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Everglades

National Park Florida

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Burmese Pythons in the Everglades

Burmese Pythons in the Everglades

Nonnative Burmese pythons now occupy a wide variety of habitats in the park, including uplands, freshwater wetlands and the saline coastal fringe.

Burmese pythons are now occasionally encountered along roads, trails, and visitor areas in the park.

After being euthanized, captured snakes undergo a stomach content analysis to help determine what they are consuming in the wild.

Necropsies have also helped confirm the presence of gravid females in the wild.

Nonnative Burmese pythons can compete directly with other top predators in the Everglades ecosystem, such as this American Alligator.

Larger pythons are capable of successfully consuming large native predators in the Everglades.

To learn more about their habits and behaviors, some captured pythons have been surgically implanted with tracking tags and rereleased into the wild.

Tagged pythons can be tracked using radio telemetry on the ground or via aircraft. Seeking out tagged specimens can lead researchers to areas where additional pythons may be recovered.

Burmese pythons, such as this one, have been found to consume a wide variety of wildlife, including alligators, wood storks, and Key Largo woodrats.

Several predatory interactions between Burmese pythons and alligators have now been documented in Everglades National Park.

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