Discarded Pythons Eating Everglades Mammals to Extinction

I'd like to see a total ban, but I know that is unlikely. It isn't easy to fight a billion-dollar industry. As long as there are people to buy, exotic animal dealers will cheerfully sell, no matter what the impact is on wild populations or on the animals -- or humans.
~Melissa Kaplan

Exotic pet owners, tired of caring for their pythons are releasing them in Florida where the snakes are finding a comfortable home in Everglades National Park. The pythons are wreaking havoc on the local mammal populations. Once commonly seen in the Everglades, marsh rabbits and foxes, opossums, and white-tailed deer are sighted up to 99% less frequently.

Burmese pythons are native to Asia, but have become popular as exotic pets. A snake that grows up to 15' length, weighs 200 pounds, and has the digestive system to match its size is sure to be a great pet, right? And! They live for 20 years or more! Everglades National Park personnel have captured or killed 1,825 pythons since 2000.

Burmese pythons were recognized as an established species in the Florida Everglades in 2000. Since then sightings of raccoons have declined by 99.3%, opossums by 98.9%, and bobcats by 87.5%. Rabbits are no longer seen at all. There were no declines at all in python-free areas.

Even alligators are not safe.

There is no clear path to freeing the everglades from the python infestation. The snakes are difficult to find in the vast wilderness of the Everglades. Extermination or suppression does not appear to be possible.

Note: An attempt is underway to ban the importation of pythons.

Something else I learned: Most of the coastal plains of the southern US is a suitable habitat for Burmese pythons.