How a 12-Year-Old Girl’s Science Project Changed the Way Scientists See Lionfish

[iscooterliberally]

6. The Burmese Python was let loose in the Everglades long before Andrew.

I grew up in South Florida. I saw a Burmese python near my neighborhood back in the 1980s. It's tail was in the center lane of a 3 lane road. The head was off on the shoulder of the road. It was well over 20 feet long. People would get them as pets, and then release them when they got too big. These problems have been going on for decades now. There are all sorts of other large snakes out in the Everglades that don't belong. I have even heard reports of Cobras too, but that's really rare. There are all kinds of reptiles running loose in South Florida that weren't here when I was a kid. Even looking in some of the canals you can see that many of the Brim have interbred with Oscars that people tossed out of their fish tanks. Thankfully piranhas have been illegal, or we would be in much worse shape. Florida will never be like it was in this regard. We have so many invasive species that it's hard to remember which ones are native sometimes.