Burmese pythons eliminated most mammals in Everglades National Park

September 4, 2026 at 08:54 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Burmese pythons, released into Florida's Everglades in the 1980s and 1990s, have become the most successful invasive vertebrate species ever documented in a U.S. national park. Nocturnal road surveys show that mammals such as raccoons, opossums, and rabbits have virtually disappeared from the southern end of Everglades National Park since 2003. The snakes thrive in the park's warm, wet habitat with no natural predators of adults.

Key Facts

A nocturnal road survey in 1996-1997 regularly recorded raccoons, opossums, marsh rabbits, cottontails, and bobcats in the southern Everglades.
Surveys conducted between 2003 and today in the same area using the same methods found approximately none of those mammals.
Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia and southern China, ranging from Bangladesh through Myanmar, Thailand, southern China, and peninsular Malaysia.
Adult Burmese pythons can reach lengths of six metres and weights of ninety kilograms, and have no natural predators in the Everglades.
Hurricane Andrew destroyed a Homestead breeding facility in August 1992, freeing thousands of pythons into the wild.

Mammal Decline

Road surveys in the remote southern end of Everglades National Park after dark now reveal almost no mammals. A 1996-1997 nocturnal survey regularly produced sightings of raccoons, opossums, marsh rabbits, cottontails, and bobcats. Surveys from 2003 to the present in the same territory, on the same road, using the same methods, found approximately none of those species. The Burmese python is the most successful invasive vertebrate species ever documented in a United States national park.

Introduction Pathways

Burmese pythons became popular pets in the U.S. exotic reptile trade during the 1980s and 1990s, when the trade was essentially unregulated. Hatchlings sold for about twenty dollars at reptile shows and pet stores, but adults grow to the length of a hallway and require large prey. Many owners released their pythons into Florida wilderness, while others escaped from insecure enclosures. Hurricane Andrew destroyed a breeding facility in Homestead in August 1992, freeing thousands of pythons.

Everglades Suitability

The Everglades provides warm year-round temperatures, with brief cold snaps killing only a small percentage of the python population. The park offers vast wetland habitat with dense cover, abundant prey, and a slow-moving river system suitable for the semi-aquatic species. No natural predators of adult pythons exist anywhere in the region.