Problems
On April 13, 2007, local volunteers Joanne Potts and Clay DeGayner discovered a Burmese python inside Crocodile Lake NWR. The 12-pound snake was uncovered from a device used to track a Key Largo Woodrat. The digested woodrat's radio transmitter lead the researchers to the python, which experts claim is the first exotic species found on the islands. “There's a good chance we never would have found him,” said Scott Hardin, exotic-species coordinator for the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “This was always my concern, what would happen when an exotic species like the python intersects with an endangered species. Here it's happened, and it has the potential to be a serious problem.” Hardin later assumed the seven and a half foot snake was either an escaped or released pet by someone who realized the python " become a burden". Walter Meshaka, senior curator for the State Museum of Pennsylvania, stated that pythons are very good swimmers and, therefore, it seemed reasonable to assume it had swum from the Everglades into the Key Largo area refuge. Hardin is attempting to calculate if there are anymore pythons in the refuge and, if there are, he plans to either control or eradicate them.
Read more about this topic: Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge
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