Burmese Python as a Pet?

By Sameen and Renée

The Burmese python is foreign to the Florida Everglades. The python will eat the other animals that live in the Florida Everglades. The pythons first appeared in the 1990's. Florida is hardly alone in the fight against invasive species.

Burmese pythons are from Southeast Asia. They live between the rainforest and grassland in Burma near India. A Burmese python’s skin is dark brown and green color. The Burmese python will shed off its skin and the new skin will let its body grow. The snake can grow to more than 20 feet long. Burmese pythons eat rats, eggs, mice, frog, rabbit and chicken.

Some people keep the python as a pet. Then the python grows too big and some owners may decide to get rid of it by dumping it in the forest. This is dangerous.

The only way to prevent them from spreading is to kill or capture the Burmese python. This costs a lot of money because the government must pay people to look for, capture or kill the Burmese python.

Florida people have many pets snakes. Snakes escape and cause trouble. It is hard to control pet snakes that are released in the wild.

References

Huge, Freed Pet Pythons Invade Florida Everglades by Stefan Lovgrenfor National Geographic News