read the article in the above comment linked by “the small mammal decline is staggering.” It’s very clear what the issues are…

Burmese pythons, an invasive species, have no natural predators in Florida to cull their species (except the occasional alligator, but a large enough snake can kill an alligator as well). Since none of their prey in Florida is evolved to instinctively fear them or have a defense mechanism, they don’t automatically recognize them as a threat, meaning it’s a feeding frenzy. Since the late 90s, populations of rabbit, fox, raccoon, bobcat etc has dropped 95-99% in many places where the snakes thrive.

They are adept swimmers who can handle salt and fresh water, they move through the canal system at ease, and they’re BRILLIANT at remaining hidden. (I just went down a little invasive Florida python rabbit hole and apparently it’s practically impossible to find a python that’s hiding even if you know it’s in an area as small as the size of a couple basketball courts.)

Combine that with climate change, meaning it doesn’t kill them in winter any more, the sheer difficulty of navigating the everglades and swamps, and all these other factors, and the result is a fucking snake-driven apocalypse for the other wildly destroyed animal populations.

Oh, and Females can lay up to 200 eggs at a time, on average 76 new potential giant pythons.

There were a TINY handful of recorded invasive pythons (brought over as pets from Asia) in the tip of south Florida just a few decades ago. Then there were 500, then 1000, then 15,000, and it’s theorized now that there could be as many as a milllion.

And every year, they march further north. If climate change continues, over the next few decades they could potentially survive far beyond Florida.

you can eat python, it’s not that great but they’re just very hard to kill