Understanding Python Patterns Could Help Save the Everglades... Maybe

To help with the detection efforts, researchers led by the US Geological Survey (USGS) strapped radio and GPS tags on the 19 captured pythons, and released them back into the national park. These animals were then tracked for 5,119 days, revealing that python home ranges are roughly an area 3-miles-wide by 3-miles-long.

But how do they chose where to live? The tracking revealed that pythons prefer the Everglades' slough and coastal habitats, with tree islands being the principal feature of common-use areas. This held true even in areas where tree islands - landmarks held together by roots above marshier ground - was not commonplace.

"These high-use areas may be optimal locations for control efforts and further studies on the snakes' potential impacts on native wildlife," Kristen Hart, a USGS research ecologist and lead author of the study, explained in a statement. "Understanding habitat-use patterns of invasive species can aid resource managers in designing appropriately timed and scaled management strategies to help control their spread."

Still, while these revelations will focus efforts, it may not be enough. Experts have stressed in the past that because the Burmese python has no natural predators in the Everglades, even while it is presented with an abundance of food sources, discovery and elimination rates need to be 50 percent or greater to even make a small annual impact on populations.

Whether or not the data from this new study can actually improve discovery rates 50 times over remains to be seen.

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