- “Pythons are apex predators and are native to the grassy marshes of South Asia, but since the end of the 20th century they have become an established breeding population in Florida” (Pittman et al., 2014).
- They are among the largest snakes on earth.
- “They have terrible eyesight, but can stalk prey using chemical receptors in their tongues and heat sensors along the jaw” (National Geographic, 2014). They kill by constriction--they grasp a victim with their sharp teeth, coil their bodies around the animal, and squeeze until it suffocates. Pythons have stretchy ligaments in their jaws that allow them to swallow their food whole.
- Burmese pythons were sighted in Everglades National Park in the 1980s, they were not officially recognized as a reproducing population until 2000. Since then, the number of python sightings has spontaneously increased with over 300 annual sightings from 2008 to 2010.
- Since Pythons were introduced to the Everglades the population of native species has declined. Pythons are carnivorous surviving primarily on a wide variety of birds, mammals, and crocodilian species occupying the everglades .
- The low detectability of pythons makes population estimates difficult for most researchers.
- The giant African land snail is the largest species of snail found on land and generally grow to around 20 cm in length.
- Scientists consider the giant African land snail to be one of the most damaging snails in the world because it is known to consume at least 500 different types of plants, and can pose a serious health risk to humans.
- It is known that giant African land snails carry parasites, and are illegal to keep as pets in some countries such as ours.
- The giant African land snail is generally seen as a pest as these snails will eat almost anything vegetarian that they can find.
- The giant African snail is a macrophytophagous (eating higher plant material only) herbivore. It eats a wide range of plant material, fruit, and vegetables.
- Since 2011 hundreds of thousands have been eradicated from south Florida and the efforts are being continued.
- One of the methods of eradication is a specially-trained dog named Bear from the U. S. Department of Agriculture that goes out each week to find hundreds of snails in Miami-Dade, far fewer than last year.