beyondfantasy3 113M
2003 posts
4/6/2015 4:55 am
A crazy trend


America's not thinking things through, and chasing novelty have led to a disaster it now can't contain nor manage.

"News article"
This is some snake. At full maturity, a Burmese python routinely reaches lengths of 12 feet or more. Twenty-footers weighing 250 pounds are not unheard-of. The pythons are prodigious breeders, with voracious appetites to match. They are believed to have eaten their way through the Everglades, bringing about startling changes in the ecosystem. Some mammals native to those marshes, like foxes and rabbits, seem to have disappeared, researchers say. Other species — among them raccoons, deer, opossums and bobcats — are close to being wiped out. Pythons that migrated from the mainland to Key Largo have put indigenous wood rats in mortal peril.

Retro Report, a series of video documentaries exploring major news stories of the past, trains its lens on the dawning realization more than a dozen years ago that the Burmese python had the potential to alter Florida’s environment far more than people realized. But the issue is really greater than one breed of Asian snakes that ran wild after being imported into the country as pets. The United States is awash in invasive species exacting a heavy toll on native wildlife and vegetation. The list of intruders is long. To name but a few, they include Argentine tegus, large lizards that feast on sea turtle eggs; venomous lionfish from Asia, which prey on local varieties of fish; Nile monitor lizards from Africa, which love to eat frogs and crocodile eggs; zebra mussels from Russia, which harm waterways and damage water treatment plants; and Asian carp, which threaten the environmental balance of the Great Lakes.

Florida draws much of the attention because its swamps and tropical climate provide splendid shelter for all sorts of creatures that are not supposed to call this country home. The state, as more than one person has observed, is the Ellis Island of exotic species.

Like many animals previously unknown north of the Equator, the Burmese python arrived through the pet trade. (Language purists might reasonably ask if it is fair to describe these snakes as invasive. It is not as if they barged in on their own. People created the problem.) At least two million constrictor snakes — boas, anacondas and pythons — are believed to have been imported since the 1970s, part of a lucrative market for exotic species. Miami is an important hub for this trafficking.
One issue with Burmese pythons is that people cavalierly bought them when they were maybe a foot long. In short order, those little fellows grew to eight feet, 12 feet, 16 feet. Talk about buyer’s remorse. Unable to deal with these giants, owners often dumped them wherever seemed feasible. One way or another, snakes in South Florida found their way to the Everglades. There, they multiplied, again and again. Recent estimates by the National Park Service put the numbers there as high as 100,000.

(End new story)

Why didn't the people who claim to want these animals, get information from the agriculture and other organizations of the native land of these species before they got lost in trying to have 'exotic pets".
Now what they have created is a mess they can't contain.

beyondfantasy3 113M
4740 posts
4/6/2015 4:26 pm

    Quoting  :

one phrase you want the gov to fix it, the next on other matters you want the gov to stay out of stuff. now which is it?

The article talked about the utter ignorance of pet owners, and the ILLEGAL activity of selling these things on the black market.

Now just what would you have the government to do? Probably the way the Right wing has wiped out the middle class, they might be just the group to give this task to if the premise you propose is viable.

Surely you don't see the problem, because you live in Canada, but then you turn and acknowledge there is a similar problem. so your post is somewhat contradictory, when you start out claiming you don't see the issue, then identify a SIMILAR issue while acknowledging that the cold is why it does not exist in your locality regarding the snakes.


beyondfantasy3 113M
4740 posts
4/7/2015 4:05 pm

Yes, I get your perspectives. I think often America waits until the problem has exploded beyond reasonable means to contain it and then it is laid out as a troublesome problem.

Here in Louisiana, they have Slavinia, it is currently one of the most problematic aquatic plants in Texas as well.

(wiki)
Small, floating aquatics with creeping stems, branched, bearing hairs on the leaf surface papillae but no true roots.

From a human point of view, when their growth is robust the plants pose a particular hindrance on certain lakes, having choked off much of the water in Lake Bistineau near Doyline in Webster Parish, Louisiana.

Giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta) is a commonly introduced invasive weed in warm climates. It grows rapidly and forms dense mats over still waters. It is native to South
America

(end wiki)

It has been a bad situations which in some parts simply blanket the lake waters, until you can't see the water.

Salvinia molesta was added to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) List of 100 of the World’s Worse Invasive Alien Species in 2013.