… he’s back, and he’s mad. Really mad:
MIAMI — Aside from being scarily large and voracious, Burmese pythons also are really good at finding their way home, according to new research conducted in Florida’s Everglades.
The discovery about pythons’ unusual navigational abilities doesn’t much help wildlife agencies desperately trying to curb the invasive snake’s population in the fragile wetlands. It might be something reptile owners should think about, though, if they’ve considered illegally dumping an unwanted pet python in the wild.
…
Six of the snakes were released in areas 13 to 22 miles from where they originally were captured. To the researchers’ surprise, the snakes figured out which way was home, and they stayed on track for months even when temperatures dropped and the cold-blooded snakes were less active. Unlike other snakes, the pythons moved with a purpose through their landscape instead of slithering randomly. It took the snakes three to nine months to get back to their original locations, according to the researchers.
Guess who wins this time?:
Yeah, we got that one right too.
No one knows how many of the snakes there are now in Florida, but they are thought to be escaped pets, stemming from Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Hat tip: Slawek Bioslawek
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