Severe mammal declines coincide with proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park.

ABSTRACT: Invasive species represent a significant threat to global biodiversity and a substantial economic burden. Burmese pythons, giant constricting snakes native to Asia, now are found throughout much of southern Florida, including all of Everglades National Park (ENP). Pythons have increased dramatically in both abundance and geographic range since 2000 and consume a wide variety of mammals and birds. Here we report severe apparent declines in mammal populations that coincide temporally and spatially with the proliferation of pythons in ENP. Before 2000, mammals were encountered frequently during nocturnal road surveys within ENP. In contrast, road surveys totaling 56,971 km from 2003-2011 documented a 99.3% decrease in the frequency of raccoon observations, decreases of 98.9% and 87.5% for opo

SUBMITTER: Dorcas ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3289325 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature