In order to more successfully locate, trap, and eradicate invasive Burmese pythons in Florida’s Everglades, researchers are attaching location-tracking collars to species like raccoons and opossums that the predatory snakes prey on, according to the Guardian.
Because many snake owners release their pets into the wild when they grow too big to handle, Burmese python populations have recently increased in south Florida.
The large snake’s diet is mostly focused on the small animal population because those pythons in particular can grow to reach 20 feet or longer.
When they submitted their initial funding requests, researchers from Southern Illinois University, Crocodile Lake, and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences had no intention of capturing the pythons in Florida.
The purpose of the study was to investigate, using GPS collars, how additional food sources, such as abandoned garbage dumps and feeding stations for feral cats, may affect the movement and behaviour of small and medium-sized mammals.
But in September, they noticed unusual behavior coming from a possum’s GPS collar, and they later discovered that a 12 foot, 62 pound Burmese python had devoured the animal (28kg). The researchers used the signal from the collar to successfully catch the snake, which was underground.
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