Stop It - The Burmese Python - Part I

We must do everything we can to rid the Everglades of all invasive plant and animal species. That’s a seemingly impossible task at this point for the supposed invasive species capitol of the world. We must also prevent the importation and introduction of any new species to protect the currently out of whack balance of South Florida’s ecosystem. Having said that, I am enraged by the ignorant media coverage regarding the “big snakes” in the Everglades. In December of 2011 an article titled “Severe mammal declines coincide with proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park” was published and the media-led hysteria that followed offered tabloid style headlines that fed into people’s natural fears.

“Pythons Rule Florida’s Everglades”

“Pythons and Anacondas Dominate Food Chain”

“Burmese Pythons Picking Florida’s Everglades Clean”

“Pythons have stranglehold on Everglades”

A local NBC anchor suggested without a trace of skepticism that the population of the invasive giants was well over 200,000. This is a stunning climb up the food chain from a few years ago when the estimate was 9000, then 15,000, 30,000 and then inexplicably 150,000. Now 200,000 plus? Stop it.

Burmese Pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are endangered in their native Southeast Asian range, thanks to poaching and exportation for the pet trade. People buy them as pets because they’re cuddly or they’re constricting. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. They get to be big, growing to lengths over 20 feet. Eventually they’re the ideal pet they once were and owners dump them in the Everglades. Many were thought to have escaped into the swamp in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew devastated Homestead, Florida, home of many reptile breeders and importers.

The scientific paper that has flamed the frenzy claimed that Northern Raccoons (Procyon lotor), Virginia Opossums (Didelphis virginiana) and bobcat sightings (both live and road kill) are down about 99% from a period of time that predated the python infestation. Now one of the co-authors is distancing himself from the suggestion that pythons are to blame. He says it’s possible, but he blames the media for drawing a correlation between the two.

They did note that top predators like the Florida Panther (Puma concolor coryi) and Coyote (Canis latrans) (an Everglades new comer), populations had increased but did not suggest that they could be culprits in the population declines of prey species such as raccoons and opossums. Nor did they mention the severe drought the Everglades National Park has experienced and what effect that might have on the need for certain species to seek out better habitat.

The analysis of the scientific paper was lacking and the media did not do their due diligence to understand the entire issue. The shocking headline was enough to craft an exciting tale of reptile Armageddon. I’ll explain more about the biology of the pythons, the threat they pose and what we need to do to stop it - Tomorrow.

The Graffiti Artists - The Double-crested Cormorant

There is no shortage of disparaging labels cast upon the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus). The heavy-bodied, diving piscivore has been called a nuisance, a villain, a monster and a fish terrorist, mostly by fishermen and mostly undeserved. I call them nature’s graffiti artists. Their roost is their canvas. Their feces and cloaca is their paint and paintbrush.

The name cormorant comes from the Latin “corvus” and “marinus” or Raven of the Sea. Considering the large congregations of birds that roost together, the fish-eating cormorant is seen as a threat to anglers and the fish they seek. While studies have shown that this threat is often exaggerated, cormorants can have an impact on the vegetation they roost upon as well as the other species that might inhabit the same trees (and usually lower than the canopy-loving cormorants).

Over the last few decades, the cormorant population in North America has dramatically increased, a heralded consequence of the ban of the harmful pesticide DDT. Like most fish-eating birds, cormorants suffered the effects of the chemical that bioaccumulated through the food chain and resulted in their inability to lay eggs with sufficiently calcified shells. Cormorants, eagles, osprey, pelicans and others would attempt to incubate their eggs and crush them instead. 

Here in South Florida I have seen a colony of 40-50 cormorants routinely roosting in the same Pond Apple (Annona glabra) trees and over time, the acidic feces they leave behind has defoliated the trees. The herons and egrets that might have nested here are forced to find a more suitable location.

In the 10,000 islands of the Everglades National Park, the cormorants, with hooked beak held high, sit upon the channel markers and leave the tell tale white washing upon the signs, inadvertent artistry that remains on display when the cormorants fly off and then swim for a meal.

Call them vandals of vegetation if you must but I prefer to look at the droppings left behind as a clue as to who was here when the bird is not. 

What's Your Wingspan? - The American White Pelican

As our boat rounded a sandbar in the 10,000 islands portion of the Everglades, I noticed a flock of twenty five, massive American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) resting and preening their feathers on an ephemeral tidal island. As the boat navigated around the backside, a flock of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) came into view along the waters edge and the contrast in size between the birds was stunning. I considered for a moment that this was a different, smaller species of cormorant, but the white pelicans are just that big.

The Double-crested Cormorant is not a small bird. With a wing-span over 50 inches and weighing over five pounds, the heavy-bodied diving bird is a conspicuous sight in the water, on power lines and in flight. When standing next to the American White Pelican, they look tiny.

The American White Pelican is the Airbus of birds. They can weigh up to twenty pounds and have a wingspan over nine feet wide. In Florida there is no bigger bird. Consider your “wingspan” is roughly your height. Mine would be five feet nine inches. I’m only nine inches taller than a White Pelican.

Long, broad wings allow the pelicans to reduce energy use by taking advantage of thermal updrafts and wave lift. As warm air rises, it creates a column of warm air that pelicans and other soaring birds can use to their advantage and rise to higher heights. Wind pushed up and over waves also provides a lift for many birds gliding over water.

Most of the White Pelicans use their wingspan to their advantage as they migrate south from the northern plains and eastern Rockies in the US and Canada. Many spend the winter here in Florida where they work in teams, paddling on the surface and steering fish into shallow water where they can scoop them up with their pouched beak. It’s an entirely different strategy then that of the Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) who dive from the air into the water to capture their prey.
Above me, a flock of fifty or more White Pelicans soars above the Everglades. I envy their view. If only I had a wider wingspan.

6th Florida Panther Killed on Road

"A two- to three-month-old female panther was struck by a vehicle and killed in Everglades National Park on Monday night.The incident occurred at 10:15 just before the park’s entrance station, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The body was collected by a Park Service ranger and transferred to the Naples FWC office late this afternoon. It will remain until a necropsy can be preformed.

The person who hit the panther noticed the mother standing by, but didn’t see any other kittens. The kitten who was killed did not have a kinked tail or cowlick.This is the 15th panther death this year, six of which have been killed on the roadways, FWC reported."

-Fort Myers News-Press, September 30th, 2008

*sigh*

The park entrance in question is the main entrance which brings you to the famous Anhinga Trail, Mahogany Hammock Trail as well as the small town of Flamingo at the southern end of the park. The park stays open to accommodate the campgrounds but the road to Flamingo is long - 39 miles - and no doubt people speed on the 35 MPH road. I don't know if that's the case here, but either way - one more Endangered Florida Panther is dead.

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Backhanded Slap From Fay

I need to keep my mouth shut. 500 tours and I have never had one as wet as today's. It was my first Everglades tour since Fay headed North and with a forecast of partly cloudy (a departure from the usual thunderstorms), we figured to have an interesting day of checking out Fay's damage. Our first stop was Lake Trafford where we take our airboat ride. The lake had hit an all time low of 4 feet in June. By August 4th the level had risen slightly.

Fay passed directly over the lake and dumped 12 inches on Tuesday, a few more yesterday and despite the "partly cloudy", dumped another 6 inches of rain today as one of the rain bands whipped back down south and provided a lengthy monsoon rain, soaking everyone on the airboat. There was no room on the boat, so I had to stay behind. When they returned, one little British girl was covered in mud but no one was sure how or why!
It continued to rain all day and the lake level has come back to a near record high with 3 months left in the rainy season. I wanted excitement. I got it. Picture above is from July 11th. Below is from August 21st. Same dock. Vegetation is gone.
The Everglades National Park was still shut down from the storm and Everglades City had been under a foot of water on Tuesday, but our walk in the Fakahatchee was productive with many alligator sightings and this happy little pup, glad that the rains have come back.

Happy 60th Anniversary

Diamond is the traditional gift for those celebrating their 60th anniversary. I would have thought fiber but I don't make the rules. The Everglades National Park turned 60 today, having been dedicated on December 6th, 1947 by Harry S Truman in Everglades City.

I celebrated by attending the anniversary events in Everglades City which consisted of a reception complete with what I will assume was fried alligator, hog testicles and refreshments, followed by politicians and park administrators thanking each other for attending, septuagenarians trying to remember if they were or were not at the dedication ceremony in 1947 and back to back to back airings of the classic 1962 tv show Everglades! The exclamation point is part of the title and not a symbol of my exuberance. Having said that I may have neglected a period at the end of the last sentence.

I was by far the youngest person in the crowd of 40+ people. In 1947 a reported 5000-10,000 honored the parks inauguration and in 1997 several hundred returned for the 50th anniversary, including Al Gore who read Truman's dedication speech.

It seemed fitting that the turn out tonight was less than that of a Krispy Kreme Grand Opening. It's one of the least visited National Parks presumably because it has no glaciers, 350 foot trees, 1000 foot waterfalls or a pressurized steam vent that blows fart-smelling water out of the ground.

I love the Everglades and I love the park. It's just hard to know what gift to pick for a 60th anniversary. $20 billion would be nice. Congress recently overrode Bush's veto of the latest Water Act that would see billions of federal dollars finally help languishing Everglades projects.

A new aquifer might be thoughtful considering the last one is nearly depleted and where salt water doesn't come out of the taps, air does. (The picture above was taken today. This should be under 2 feet of water.)

Maybe a crash in the housing market and a stop to the rampant development? What are the chances that will happen? It's happening? Fantastic. I'll go halvsies.

Park Superintendent Dan Kimball encouraged hopefulness this evening. But we need to stop developing in the Everglades. We need to get Big Sugar out. We need to remove as much of the flood control devices as possible. We need to clean up the pesticides, ag runoff and other pollutants and we need to conserve the water. If you live in or travel to Florida - it's partly your responsibility to figure out how. If you don't live in Florida and don't travel here, you need to be supportive of the federal dollars that are spent on the "world's largest wetlend restoration project". The Everglades and all of her plants and wildlife deserve it.

I might be around for the 100th anniversary and I hope the park will be too.

Jungle Idol: Three Miles to Nowhere

I don't always lead tours. Part of my job is to give presentations and convince people they want to leave the beach and spend the day in the swamp. So I put on my jungle hat, grab a microphone and do my thing every Monday morning. Monday being my birthday - I gave my presentation and afterwards was praised by a very nice, well-to-do woman in her sixties who said "I can tell you love what you do and that is $&@^! cool!" OK!

As I promised myself, I took the rest of the afternoon off and headed down towards Shark Valley Slough in the middle of the Everglades to check out a spot I'd never been too. There's an old road off the main highway that's gated now and if anyone goes out there I don't know why. It reminds of a song by Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers called Hope and Madness about the resilience of nature and the ability to rebound from our ceaseless abuse - the lyrics go something like this:

Let her lead you so very far away

Where no one can reach you

Spread out wild and wander

And may everything they poison come back stronger

While the rest of us were sleeping

She sent flowers gently creeping.

And the waters slowly seeping

Through the cracks in the pavement

And the cracks in the dam

So now everything we steal away

We know someday she'll take it back again

I walked the pavement on a road to nowhere and reveled in the weeds that pushed up through asphalt the ant hills rising where cars once drove and the moon vines blanketing everything in the distance including a 20 foot tall tree of unknown species at the center of the photo. To the north by 200 miles, the Army Corps of Engineers has systematically removed 52 miles of canals and let the Kissimmee River revert to it's natural state. Along Tamiami Trail, the Department of Transportation will be lifting the road, creating a causeway and letting the water flow. And in the Picayune Strand - they are pulling up hundreds of miles of roads and canals in one of the largest (and failed) developments in US history. Eventually nature will take it back. Imagine if we ended the hostilities against her everywhere.

Near the end of my trek I stopped at a berry bush and noticed a strange shaped leaf. It twitched.And then spread it's wings - as did it's mate. It was a mating pair of Julia Heliconian butterflies - members of the longwing family. The female would fly as they mated and land not far away - hoping for a safe place to work on the next generation. This bird won't be passing along it's DNA. Nothing but feathers - the predator long gone with the tasty parts.I left my forgotten road and headed west on Tamiami Trail. By the time I made it to Shark Valley, the last Tram had departed and the final bikes were rented for the day. I walked the boardwalk and the tram road, smooth and tidy - imagining future cracks - prophesying weeds. The tourists can have their pretty park. I prefer to be off the beaten path. I liked my three miles to nowhere.