ABANDONED PYTHONS IN EVERGLADES AND LONG ISLAND TOO

Pythons on Long Island—never mind those in the Everglades?

Recent reports from Florida claim that pet-Burmese pythons have invaded Florida's Everglades. The common Burmese python is an easily purchased and inexpensive pet--when a yard-long youngster. But when it reaches full size--a length of twenty feet (or more) and weight of 200 pounds--it is too big and dangerous to keep. Then it is too-often released into the wild. See: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1028_051028_pythons.html (accessed June 18, 2009)

Florida Fish and Wildlife staff report that the first evidences of escaped Burmese pythons in Florida were made way back in 1979, when one was caught and removed from the park. Few were found after that, until 1995. Then, in the last couple of years (2001-2005) the species underwent a population explosion, with more than 200 of these big constrictors caught in the park, the largest one being 15 feet long. Recent reports have found that some of the smaller snakes collected in the 1.3 million acre reserve have "egg-scars", an indication that they were hatched in the wild and give further credence to the presence of a viable breeding population. Other reports indicate that these pythons..which can swim quite well--may be leaving the park's southern boundary and expanding their range south into the Florida Keys. Eight Burmese pythons were collected there as recently as March 2009. See: http://forums.ancientclan.com/showthread.php?t=8937.

The Burmese python is one of the largest snakes in the world. Females tend to be heavy bodied and may exceed fifteen feet in length. At sexual maturity they can lay a clutch of sixty eggs. In sixty days the eggs hatch into twenty inch long hungry hatchling's. This species is a common pet in Florida and elsewhere. Over six thousand were legally imported for the pet-trade and probably many thousand more were bred here in the US by snake fanciers.

The problem with this lovely, mottled dark brown and yellow snake native of Asia, Myanmar, and India, where it is represented by a subspecies found in restricted locations, is its growth. Well-fed it soon grows too big for its original owner to keep safely (See below July 1, 2009 story of a two-year old Florida child killed by a Burmese python.) Often the owner, with few options other than to euthanize the snake, may release the animal into the wild. Such actions have devastating consequences on native birds, mammals and reptiles. Particularly in the case of the Burmese since as an adult the Burmese python becomes an "apex predator" in the Everglades...since there are no species...not even the alligator--which it will not attack and attempt to eat.

These recent reports from Florida reminded me of an incident here on Long Island regarding an escaped exotic constrictor which occurred about a decade ago.

It wasn’t so very long ago, perhaps 1999, while I was working with a small archaeological field team in south-central LI in a thickly wooded, one-hundred acre site, south of the Country Road in the village of West Sayville. The islolated wooded parcel was surrounded by busy roads and suburban sprawl.

That day I was somewhere in the center of the parcel, using a transit to map several late-19th century and early 20th century building-ruins. The old structures, their ancient roofs collapsed onto their stone and brick foundations, were overgrown with mats of poison ivy, tangles of bittersweet and armored against human passage by viciously-barbed tangles of green brier. Using a brush hook, I cut away as much of the vegetation as was necessary to stand a survey rod up against the partly exposed foundation corner of a 19th century structure and then I walked back to the transit at the site master-stake to determine the location of it for the site map I was preparing.

Working in this manner I proceeded alone, taking transit-readings and moving my rod to various positions as I proceed along a narrow path which led toward the north end of the parcel. At one point I looked up from my field notebook, surprised to see a stout, middle aged woman walking toward me along the path. She wore a wide-brimmed hat pulled down over her light-colored hair and carried a split-wood basket on her arm.

“Hello there!” I called out, thinking to alert her to my presence.

Hearing my call, the woman stopped abruptly. She appeared startled. But seeing my red field-vest, my transit and the appurtenances of a surveyor, she seemed reassured, and slowly approached.

“We're conducting a field survey, on this property,”I called out to her reassuringly. “You may see two of my assistants down the path a-way. They’re digging test holes, down there.” I pointed south down the narrow path to where Bill Jensen and Toby Moore were working.

“Oh, I see. You do, the survey.” She spoke with a distinct, Slavic accent. Her clothes and appearance reminded me of the sturdy Polish and Ukrainian farm-wives I knew so well from my work in Riverhead Town.

“Yes”, I said, as I completed the last entry in my field book and stuffed it in the pocket of my field-vest. “And what are you doing way out here?” I asked.

“Oh, I search for—for ‘gryzbow' , the “fungee”. You English you say “mushrooms,” she added, with a smile that revealed a gold-capped tooth. As she spoke, she reached into her basket, and pulled back a damp cloth to reveal a colorful pile of local mushrooms. I peered in. Some were dark brown, others had white stems and red caps and some had some the brown caps with yellow, spongy-looking gills, while one, a large orange colored shelf fungus I recognized as Lyetiporus, the sulfur shelf or “chicken of the woods” mushroom. I knew that one was edible.

“So do you collect mushrooms here regularly?” I asked, as she carefully replaced the damp cloth.

“No, I come here to this place" she paused, seeming to search for the right words, "for my first time. I visit my sister, who lives near-by," she turned to point toward the South-Country-Road from which direction came the faint rumble of traffic through the woods.

“Ahh, well, good luck in your search,” I said, moving away to retrieve my transit-rod and place it at the opposite corner of another building-ruin.

“Vould you tell me someting?” she asked, as I passed by.

“Why yes, if I could.” I said, pausing and turning toward her.

“You know this place gut?”

“Well yes, I could say, I’ve lived in this Township for a good part of my life…and…and I know a bit about the local area too.”

“Are there ‘wezem’, I…I.. mean... snakes here?”

“Snakes?”

She nodded her head in the affirmative and raised a thick, soil-grimed finger to her chin seeming to eagerly anticipate my response.

Well yes…but there are none that are poisonous here,” I said, attempting to assure her.

She listened carefully as I spoke.

“There are a good many garter snakes and black snakes around here, they seem to like to hide out in the ruins…you know…the old buildings.”

Unt ‘jak duza’ ahh.. I mean, how big these snakes are?” she interrupted, as I pulled the survey rod from its position.

“Oh the “garters” are about so big,” I said, holding my hand in the middle of the meter mark on the end of my survey rod to designate the length, “and the some of the black snakes are about a meter long,” I added, running my hand down along the stick to the black, meter-mark on the rod.

“Oh,” she said, nodding her head and staring at the survey stick. As she looked at me carefully her eyes closed to slits. She seemed not to believe me.

“But don’t worry,” I added quickly, “they’re not dangerous, and also there are no poisonous snakes here on Long Island.” I reassured her, again, with a broad smile.

“Oh, I not vorried,” she said, pulling a long, rusty kitchen knife out of her basket. Her gold tooth flashed as she smiled.

“So why do you ask?” I continued, thinking perhaps someone had misinformed her about the snakes on Long Island.

“Vell, back dere, next to that long rock vall......”

“Ahh yes, yes the old barn foundation…”

“I vas finding many big boletus there...they are good for to dry. ” She turned to point up the path to the foundation I had mapped earlier in the day.

“I collect gut ones close to the rocks, but there vas roots unt vines, so I pulled them away and as I did it, I see two beady eyes. They belong to a big ‘waz’—a big snake— on the other side of the vall.”

“Oh?” I murmured, a little disappointed, that I had missed making this interesting observation.

“Den it rose up tall, to look at me straight in the eye. Its fork-ed tongue—dis big it vas”, here she stuck out her thick, soil-begrimed index finger and marked the length on it. She continued, excitedly, “it flicked the tongue at me. I thought, perhaps it does not want to share these nice mushrooms with me….and anyway—I say to mysel—“Olga, you have near a basket full. For me and Velda, she is my sister, how much could we eat?”

“Oh it was perhaps a black snake or a black coach-whip snake….”

“It vas with brown patches with yellow and white,” responded Olga, firmly, who now seemed relieved to have gotten her story off her chest---- and much less confident about my knowledge of local herpetology.

“Oh,I see,” I said as I scratched my head pushing my green ASI baseball cap back on my head. “Brown and yellow, huh?” I mentally flipped through my old and well thumbed copy of “Reptiles of New York, Field Guide”. There were not that many species here on Long Island. There were small green snakes and mottled snakes, but none were brown and yellow and white.

“So how big was this snake?” I asked finally.

Olga raised her thick forearm so the wicker mushroom basket slipped back to her elbow. She pursed her lips and wrapped her thick fingers around her forearm. She held the clasped forearm and hand upright and closed her fingers on her raised hand together to form the rough shape of the head of a big snake. I got the picture. The snakes head and "neck" were as big as her hefty forearm.

“The part that was above the vall, it vas bigger den my arm, und the head, it vas bigger than my hand.” She said, looking at her arm again and nodded her head in approval of her estimate.

“Oh,” I said, the bafflement apparent in my voice. From the size of Olga’s thick forearm and wrist, what she seemed to be describing was a large---perhaps very large python or boa constrictor. But how could such a snake live free here in the woods of West Sayville?

Then I thought about it. Not far away were several large housing developments. This isolated forest area would be just the place to release a pet python when it got too big.

After Olga left, I walked back to search around the old barn foundation. Unlike Olga, I carried my long-handled “Sears Best” long-handled shovel for protection. After carefully peering over the wall to reassure myself there were no large reptiles on the other side, I climbed over. Between the wall and collapsed roof, I found a narrow muddy path and in the damp soil, I observed distinct tracks--long, smooth drag-tracks that could have been those of a very large python, but I saw nothing of the actual snake itself.

I peered into the shadowy pile of fallen timbers, and under a section of moss-encrusted cedar-shingled roof. In there were plenty of places for a large snake to hide. Small critters, rodents and vermin were common in there and would supply a hungry python with plenty of prey. Soon afterward, I began to inquire about similar observations.

I put together the following brief file.

See: Snake escapes in Hauppauge, LI http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/python.snake.middle.2.238268.html


Man takes 14 foot python for a walk on LI gets arrested.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Curtis-Dewberry-Arrested-For-Taking-Python-For-A-Walk-In-Long-Island/Article/20080131300944?lpos=Home_Article_Related_Content_Region_6&lid=ARTICLE_1300944_Curtis_Dewberry_Arrested_For_Taking_Python_For_A_Walk_In_Long_Island

Baby found with California King snake in its crib on LI. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,364875,00.html


Abandoned python 2.5 feet found in Central Park NY City…

Recently: Burmese Python kills Florida child in crib:http://www.metronews.ca/edmonton/world/article/254921--escaped-pet-python-strangles-two-year-old-girl-in-florida-home.

Get the picture?

rjk