In the last several decades , Burmese Python have been blamed for the sharp declination of aboriginal mammals in the wetland of Florida . But the evidence so far has either been collateral or suggested that there may be perpetrators as well . Well , now there ’s little doubtfulness unexpended : These invasive pythons ( mostly former pet ) make more than three - fourth of all marsh rabbit mortalities during a yr - long study . Thefindingswere release inProceedings of the Royal Society Bthis calendar week .
In Everglades National Park , sightings and removals of Burmese Python ( Python molurus bivittatus ) have been sporadic in the eighties and 1990s , though they increased sharply in the early 2000s . Researchers examine python bowel content found that mammals made up 75 percent of their dieting , and these ranged from muskrats and raccoons to bobcats .
To establish a lineal connectedness between non - aboriginal pythons and mammal declines , a squad go byRobert McCleery from the University of Florida , trapped marsh rabbits ( Sylvilagus palustris ) and then fitted 95 healthy adult with a 28 - gram radiotransmitter that has a ramp up - in mortality sensor . They loose the small , brown rabbit to one of three sites : two areas in the park ( where pythons are established ) and a control site outside the park where pythons have n’t been observed .
" We specifically chose the marsh rabbits to study because it ’s a critter that breeds all the time , and you should n’t be able-bodied to eat enough of it to wipe it out,“McCleery tell the Los Angeles Times . That makes its disappearing particularly distressing . These rabbits should be common throughout the southeastern U.S.
The team radiotracked the hare at least once every two day using handheld receivers , and they examine each carcase or fatality rate web site for the suit of death . depredation by Python and other reptilian were classifiable since they eat the lapin whole , and the transmitter would then be inside the snake or alligator . They also tested for Burmese python DNA on the fur of two raven cony .
By the end of the twelvemonth - prospicient experiment , two of the rabbit survived ( and likely created some bunnies ) , and the squad was able to document 68 rabbit mortalities . In the parking area , pythons accounted for 77 pct of the deaths . For comparison , in the controller web site outside of the park ( below , b ) , no rabbits descend dupe to pythons : 71 percent of the mortality rate were classified as mammal predations . Researchers came to that last based on scats and caterpillar tread , bite mark , pearl breaks , first step of the eubstance , and the removal of organ .
In 2012 , theU.S. Pisces the Fishes and Wildlife Service banned the import of four pythons , including the Burmese python . " A lot of really smart people have been seek to figure out how to solve this job and there are still plenty of things we can try,“McCleery adds . " We are not done yet . "
Images : U.S. National Park Service(top , middle ) , R.A. McCleery et al . , Proc . R. Soc . B : 2015 ( bottom )
