Saturday, January 12, 2013

Burmese Pythons

The issue of Burmese Pythons is a major issue in the U.S., especially Florida. They are a non-native species that reproduce quickly, destroy the ecosystem, and are large enough to eat allogators, deer, pets, and even small children. It's illegal to import them, but that doesn't really stop people. As long as dealers claim they are "captive bread", it's legal to posess them. Often the snakes become too difficult to care for and they are released into the wild. It's easy to import them because they are cold blooded, so when packed in suitcases, they're "asleep" and rarely move at all. Same with other exotic reptiles, even the rare Galapagos Turtles. There is a huge market for illegal reptiles. For one reason, snakes are interbread in an attempt to obtain different colors, including albino colors which are very rare, and thus are expensive. Although according to CITES, importation is supposedly difficult, it's relative easy to get around that issue. This big issue is whether they should be returned to their home land or euthanized because is they stay here our ecosystem will be ruined and they pose a severy threat to our way of life.

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