Next snake victims: Tourists?
In the wake of a giant pet python breaking out of a cage to kill a small child in Florida, there’s growing concern among US legislators over a variety of unwelcome invasive species that may threaten local residents as well as visitors.
“It’s just a matter of time before one of these snakes gets to a visitor in the Florida Everglades,” said Florida Sen. Bill Nelson. He has introduced a bill to ban imports of the snakes after years of trying to persuade federal wildlife officials to restrict their entry here.
"I’m glad that damn python is a long way from where we live," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said at Senate hearings on the subject of wider bans.
He is not alone and Florida is not the only place where unwelcome visitors are subjects of concern. Several other Senators cited mysterious fungus attacking bats in the Northeast and Zebra mussels in the great lakes.
“Native wildlife is facing threats nationwide,” said the AP.
Twelve-foot-long Burmese pythons, which are not native to North America, live in the wild in south Florida as far north as Sarasota. They are also a growing threat in the Everglades. The snakes there have taken on Florida’s natural predator, alligators.
The intruders can grow up to 26 feet and weigh more than 200 pounds. Their muscular coils can strangle everything from large animals to an entire ecosystem.
The two-year-old who was killed in a small town about 60 miles north of Orlando was a victim of a family pet that escaped its cage.
The girl’s parents, who were home at the home, found the snake wrapped around the child.
"The baby’s dead," the father told police. "Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby."
The Burmese python is "one of the most commonly kept exotic snakes in the pet trade because of its ‘gentle’ disposition," according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Federal officials have estimated the US spends more than $138 billion annually controlling invasive species.
But how big is the potential problem of tourists having to face down deadly snakes?
The Humane Society of the United States says it is aware of a dozen people who have been killed in the US by pet pythons since 1980, including five children. None of them were tourists.
Report by David Wilkening
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