Constrictors Thrive in Southern Waters

Ah yes, coming to a river nearyou is an assortment of the largest and scariest constrictors in the world, whoare now busy locating mates and producing large families.  One assumes that for now they have no naturalpredators although that was also missing in their home ranges also.  In the event they will fill out their rangerather quickly.

The good news is that they are noreal threat to us unless one is increditably stupid or drunk as a skunk whenstaggering by the local slough (a danger anyway). 

Of course we will shoot them outof hand, but this battle is already lost and the map shows us just howwidespread the habitat will be before this is all finished.

In the meantime the Mississippi is full ofAsian carp and we will need to master the fine art of cooking them.  Perhaps the constrictors are good at eatingthem.

Large Cryptid Snakes - San Juan River, Utah

FRIDAY, MAY 06, 2011

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2011/05/large-cryptid-snakes-san-juan-river.html

San Juan River - southeastern Utah

Navajo petroglyphs

Click for video

I recently had a conversation with my friend and cryptozoologist J.C. Johnsonof Crypto FourCorners in reference to sightings of large aquatic snakes at variouslocations on the San Juan River in the Four Corners area ofsoutheastern Utah.These sightings were noted in 2005 and 2007. According to JC, one of thesesnakes made it's way from the river onto the bank and reared itself up to theback bumper of his truck which was parked about 120 feet from the river edge.On the video he describes a serpent with a 10"-12" diameter. JCremarked to me that the snake was dark in color with markings similar to thoseof a Indian / Burmese Python or a species of Anaconda. The air temperature wasin the mid-40s Fahrenheit.

There have also been sightings of smaller aquatic snakes, most likely offspringof the larger cryptids. A witness on the video describes a similar snake with alength of 30 ft. also witnessed on the San Juan River.

There are no indigenous snake species in the Four Corners area that match any of the sightings. Is there apossibility that a python species was introduced to the river system?

The following article was printed USA Today 0n 2/22/2008:

Pythons could squeeze lower third of USA

As climate change warms the nation, giant Burmese pythons could colonizeone-third of the USA, from San Francisco across the Southwest, Texasand the South and up north along the Virginiacoast, according to U.S.Geological Survey maps released Wednesday.

The pythons can be 20 feet long and 250 pounds. They are highly adaptable tonew environments.

Two federal agencies — the USGS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — areinvestigating the range of nine invasive snakes in Florida, concerned about thedanger they now pose to endangered species. The agencies are collecting data toaid in the control of these populations.

They examined Burmese pythons first and, based on where they live in Asia, estimated where they might live here. One map showswhere the pythons could live today, an area that expands when scientists useglobal warming models for 2100.

"We were surprised by the map. It was bigger than we thought it was goingto be," says Gordon Rodda, zoologist and lead project researcher."They are moving northward, there's no question."

Burmese pythons were introduced to the USA as part of the pet trade. Thefirst specimens in the wild were discovered in the mid-1990s in the Florida Everglades, released by owners who nolonger wanted them, says Skip Snow, a wildlife biologist with the NationalParks Service in the Everglades.

By 2003, there was evidence the snakes had established breedingcolonies in the wild. Floridabegan regulating their sale and ownership Jan. 1.

If federal officials had to worry only about Florida, it would be "decades"before the pythons move into other states, Rodda says. But people keep dumpingpythons they don't want into the wild. "We just learned about some thathad been released in Arkansas,"he says.

The Burmese python is not poisonous and not considered a danger to humans.Attacks on humans have involved petowners who mishandle and misfeed thesnakes, Snow says. In Florida,they eat bobcats, deer, alligators, raccoons, cats, rats, rabbits, muskrats,possum, mice, ducks, egrets, herons and song birds. They grab with their mouthto anchor the prey, then coil around the animal and crush it to death beforeeating it whole.

If you see one, don't attempt to engage it. Leave the area, note the locationand notify the authorities.

Burmese Python (Python molurus)

The following report was published Report Documents theRisks of Giant Invasive Snakes in the U.S.

Five giant non-native snake species would pose high risks to the health ofecosystems in the United Statesshould they become established in the country, the U.S.Geological Survey (USGS) said today.

A 300-page report prepared by the agency details the risks of nine non-nativeboa, anaconda and python species that are invasive or potentially invasive inthe U.S.

"Because all nine species share characteristics associated with greaterrisks, none was found to be a low ecological risk," USGS said in astatement released with the report.

Two of the giant snake species are documented as reproducingin thewild in South Florida, withpopulation estimates for Burmese pythons in the tens of thousands, the agencynoted.

A Burmese python peeks over the head of an alligator that holds the python'sbody in its mouth in Everglades National Park.

These species of snake are of most concern:

Indian or Burmese python (Python molurus)

Northern African python (Python sebae)

Southern African python (Python natalensis)

Reticulated python (Python [or Broghammerus] reticulatus)

Boa constrictor (Boa constrictor)

Green anaconda (Eunectes murinus)

Yellow anaconda (Eunectes notaeus)

Beni or Bolivian anaconda (Eunectes beniensis)