Mike Bodle, South Florida Water Management District Senior Biologist, brought Pandora & her box to the 4-17-2015 meeting of the Eugenia Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society for his talk about invasive plants and critters.
Pandora the python was captured in the Everglades and toted to Washington D.C. to emphasize the need for funding to work to control this evil exotic snake that is ravaging the ecology of the Everglades and to for lobby for restrictions on the importation of exotic “pets”.
As the number of pythons has increased, mammal populations have declined. A recent study found that nearly 80% of radio-tracked marsh rabbits released in the Everglades were eaten by pythons. Mike showed a photograph of a massive bulge. When the python was cut open, a full-sized, freshly-killed deer was inside.
What a stunning contrast to our docile and diminutive native constrictors like Diego the corn snake.
Enjoy the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area 