FORT MYERS, Fla. — Less than a year after two state agencies decided to combine forces and remove invasive snakes from the Everglades, contractors caught a record number of Burmese pythons.
The News-Press reports that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Southwest Florida Water Management District removed nearly 2,000 invasive pythons in the first eight months of 2020, surpassing 2019 totals.
As of mid-October, the teams removed nearly 4,000 snakes bringing the total snakes removed since the program’s inception in 2017 to 6,278.
Invasive Burmese pythons consume small mammal populations in the Everglades. Breeders and owners introduced pythons to the Everglades by dumping the unwanted snakes into the wild.
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