With all due respect, this dog was killed in it's own yard, not "running rampant".
I completely agree about feral cats, an issue we struggle with here in the UK. But how often a snake is feeding depends ENTIRELY upon it's lifestage and the size of prey it's taking. Growing snakes will feed as often as possible in order for growth and repair. Females reaching maturity will feed insanely. The "once a month" feeding refers only to adult snakes for a maintenance diet - that is to maintain weight when energy is not used for breeding or growing - so we're talking about mainly adult males here. Size of prey wise, if no larger prey is available and they are taking smaller prey, they will need more smaller prey items than a single larger one.
It would be great if it was as simple as Burmese Pythons predating only on or mostly on feral cats and dogs which would help that individual issue; but you only need to look at the history of invasive species introduced by man to see that this very rarely, if ever works out quite so. The problem is, you're messing with a very delicate ecological balance with ecological niches, and whenever it is done it upsets this delicate balance greatly in some way. Even if Burms only predated on your feral cats, what then happens to the explosion of rodents that will quickly follow suite? What about all the invertebrate species that will then plummet due to this? This is when rodents start infesting crops and human dwellings trying to source food. And what about the species the invertebrates fed on? They will sky rocket. How will this affect other species? What about your native reptiles that feed on rodents? You are likely to see a population explosion for them. A reaction for every action, ecology really is not quite as simple as dealing with only one species.
One point I do agree on that has been mentioned, is that unfortunately feral cat numbers are for the most part, shrugged off as no big issue while Burmese Python invasion is viewed as horrific. I'm guessing that is because they are perfectly capable of killing adult humans, nevermind children whereas cats are not. Still saddens me that nothing is really being done about the feral cat issue either over your side of the pond or on my side. But then again pet cats play as much of a role in predation as do ferals.
Also understand that people who are not snake lovers haven't had to deal with this issue, I imagine having an invasive species as Burmese Pythons suddenly thrust upon them will be quite frightening for them.
These pythons may pose a threat to people who let their pets run rampant but pose no threat to the environment. If anything- they help it out by replacing the apex predator and removing feral cats which are responsible for bird and rodent population crashes.
Keep in mind that these snakes feed mainly on common animals like racoons, opossums, armadillos, etc. and only eat an average of once a month. Also keep in mind that there are not nearly as many as the USGS and USFWS have said that there were. Independent research also shows that they will not be spreading north.
This whole thing is a media sensation but nothing more.
Frank- why not post the rest of whatever it is you have to say here and get rid of the links? It's ridiculously annoying.
such beautiful dogs.
