The southeast coast is indigenous to a wide variety of snakes. Rattlers could be seen out here, as well as copperheads, water moccasins, and land developers.
However, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) predicts Burmese pythons may take up residence in the southeast -- in fact, the entire southern third of the country within the next hundred years, if there is indeed a warming trend as all evidence suggests.
It's a comfort to know Burmese pythons are not poisonous snakes. A good thing; there are plenty of those kind around here. What's not so comforting is that pythons are just plain big. Big enough to hunt deer and alligator. Try 20 feet long and around 250 pounds. That's one big piece of reptile.
Besides the southeast -- as far north of Virginia -- the USGS predicts these jumbo snakes could take up residence across Texas and the rest of the southwest, and up California as far north as San Francisco.
Definitely, there's a lot of guessowrk and what-ifs in predictions such as this. In this case, the USGS charted the range of several snakes found in Florida and Arkansas -- snakes that were originally dumped by pet owners who didn't want them any more, studied their usual Asian habitat, and cranked in global warming estimates.
"We were surprised by the map," USGS zoologist Gordon Rodda said. "It was bigger than we thought it would be. They are moving northward, there's no question."
Despite the current presidential administration's stance that global warming is nothing but pseudoscience, it's real stuff. One need only watch so much footage of Antarctic ice shelves breaking apart into the ocean or study so many satellite images of the eroding polar ice cap up north. Optimists say it's a trend, similar to other temperature fluctuations during the Earth's history. Pessimists -- and count me in that group -- say this particular warming trend is man-made, that it is either triggered or aggravated by man's own wastes. Whatever it is doesn't change the evidence that it is indeed getting warmer, though the computer models may or may not be realistic.
But check out those maps, anyway. What's really interesting is the map showing where these pythons could live right now:
This second map shows what the python population could look like by the year 2100:
But anything involving an introduced species is tricky to predict anyway. Out in my part of the country we have kudzu, an ivylike plant that nothing can kill. It just spreads, choking off everything in its path. It's imported, and no one is real sure why, but most southerners probably want the head of the person who did it.
Some years ago, when the St. Lawrence Seaway was completed, this not only turned the Great Lakes into a viable shipping entity, but it gave the lamprey -- a type of parasitic eel -- a route to the Lakes, doing a real number on sport fishing there.
And in Hawaii, you're likely to see mongoose everywhere. They were brought there to control the rat population, and it seemed like a real good idea at the time. The only problem is that rats are nocturnal while mongoose hunt by day. Rather than set their alarm clocks, Hawaiian mongoose are content to feast on birds' eggs. Now, there are tight restrictions on what plant or animal life you bring onto the islands; a good call given Hawaii's fragile ecosystem.
In Florida, the python problem has been taken seriously enough that the state government recently started regulating their sale and ownership. Good choice there. Florida pythons eat bobcats, deer, alligators, raccoons, cats, rats, rabbits, 'possum (the other white meat), mice, and songbirds. Anything they can catch in their teeth, they'll eat -- but not without giving them the ol' python hug first. The snakes are not considered dangerous to humans, though have attacked pet owners who mishandle or misfeed them.
That part is understandable. If the python owner runs out of mice and the snake begins to eye the pizza delivery man, there's a problem right there.
Meanwhile, as things get a little warmer around these parts, keep your eye peeled for big snakes. They just might be coming.
Eeeeek!
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