More Bad News About Snakes

A story about biologists struggling to keep wild populations of Burmese pythons under control in Florida was published by many news outlets over the weekend. Seems that Burmese pythons are a pretty successful invasive species in the Everglades, and their huge size (with appetites to match) could be a major threat to the ecosystem. So, a plea: please, never release your exotic pets into the wild. With the odd exception, most released pets are most likely to die by starvation or becoming somebody else's dinner. The exceptions to this rule that do survive (like the aforementioned pythons) can do serious damage to native wildlife populations and ecosystems. Releasing pets is a definitely a no-win situation!