AIKEN, S.C. — One by one, seven slithering Burmese pythons were dumped into an outdoor snake pit surrounded by 400 feet of reinforced fence at the Savannah River Ecology Lab in South Carolina.
Ecologists will monitor the exotic pythons, all captured in Florida, to determine whether they can survive in climates a few hundred miles to the north. The test could show whether the snakes, which can grow up to lengths of 25 feet, are able to spread throughout the Southeast.
The snakes have been invading southern Florida’s ecosystem since 1992, when scientists speculate that a bevy of Burmese pythons was released after Hurricane Andrew shattered many pet-shop terrariums. Now scientists fear the species is silently slithering northward.
“They . . . have an impact on native species,” said herpetologist Whit Gibbons, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia and a member of the python project. “If you have a big old python eating five times as much as another species that eats the same prey, it’s a competitive thing” with alligators, among other top predators.
While pythons don’t make a habit of attacking people, herpetologist Whit Gibbons, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia, called the possibility a “nightmare.”
“What about the first kitty cat they eat? Or the first little poodle? They’d love poodles, I imagine,” he said.
