Yah i know, but their damage to water bird eggs is far worse. My brother worked for the EPA, numerous private ecologist, and now is doing a bunch of watershed stuff at USF. I've very aware of the invader species. Were finding 13 foot green anaconda's up here in central FL. But the pythons have been frozen back into the glades. But everything lives there.

Iguanas and anacondas are ‘sometimes’ residents of Florida and have been for millennia. They will show up naturally from time to times as weather permits. Pythons, however, are another matter. These, along with exotic fish will do some real damage. We’ve got start restricting the pet and animal farm industries.

We had a case up here of an escaped Siberian tiger. It was lucky that its mate did not get out and it hung around close by. It was eventually caught. Imagine if the two of them got out and started breading in Algonquin Park, just 60 miles away. The weather here is ideal for them and the population of 10,000+ Moose would have kept them well fed and in a breading mood. None of their natural diseases to keep them in check and no real competition for the food. The only natural predator in Algonquin is the wolf. They only rarely take moose and would make a nice snack for a tiger.

 

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Anacondas are native as far north Venezuela, Columbia and the Guianas. When weather conditions permit (like I said) they make their way north to Florida. Various anaconda remains have been found in Florida that supports their being there on occasion, multiple times. If you doubt me, check with a palaeontological herpetologist in one of the Florida universities.

Why are folks so reactionary on this site? Do y’all hate it when someone has knowledge y’all don’t?

Fork!!!

 

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Maxpower07, I'm not insinuating they make a 1000 mile swim every warm weekend. My comments are from a conversation I had with someone in the field a couple of years ago. I believe he was saying they make it up the island chain during times of warmer weather. And I don’t mean the last heat wave you guy’s had. I mean long term warming trends. Their visits are in terms of once every few millennia, not once every few months.

In any case, I am no expert on the subject, but this seems to be an important point for you. So I’ll drop my friend a line to see if he can comment further. I think he’s been in the south of China recently doing some amphibian study, but I’m sure he’ll be home for the holidays. I’ll let you know what he says.

 

"Someone purchased this at a time it was no bigger than a couple of fingers and when it got big, released it."

More than likely. I'm not trying to say otherwise. Just that they have been in Florida before (long ago).

Until early 2008, pet shops in Florida carried exotic reptiles that could be purchased by anyone. The rules were tightened because the foreign species, which were being dumped in the wild by their owners, became a serious menace to the state's flora and fauna.

Now, this was the real gist of my first post. I'm glad someone has come to their senses.

 

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I have not heard back yet from my source, but I've been doing some looking.

... Wildlife officer Lt. Rick Brown thinks it's the first time an anaconda has been caught in the wild in the state.

According to this http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/specimenviewer.aspx?SpecimenID=237546 US government site, Lt. Rick Brown needs to check his facts.

Edit:
Here is another article by a noted biologist that indicates Anacondas may not be as intolerant of salt water as you suggest. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Guianan_mangroves

 

-12 C in central Ontario, Canada. We have about 40 cm of snow on the ground.

Nice to see you got some snow. Pity the poors boys east with thier rain. In Calgary, we're at -15c but chinook is coming into town tomorrow so will be around 0-5 over Xmas.

 

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No Problem Max. I'm willing to admit my original satement is not well founded. If I do not hear back from my own source before too long I'll pass the idea to Jesus Rivas. He seems to be the foremost authority.

 

Updtes here:

First, let me say that it appears I was mistaken.

From my original source (personal stuff removed):

"We were just bantering around ideas. At the time we were looking for projects that could draw funding and thought something like this, however wild an idea, might draw some cash. Feral Pythons and Anacondas had been in the news.
It’s a slightly possible, but not likely scenario."


From Jesus Rivas:

“Bill
Thanks for your question and interest.
Anacondas, although good swimmers, dislike deep water. You always find them in shallow water. It would not be at all on their nature to venture on deep water, much less open ocean with currents which they also seem to avoid. The preferred habitat is shallow water, no currents and covered with aquatic vegetation. No likely to go into the ocean.
Yes, there are anacondas in Trinidad but their origin is not from having swam on the open ocean. In geological times there are often periods of cooling when the icecaps become larger sequestering a lot of the water from the oceans. IN these cool periods, the tropics still remain warm but they are a lot drier. Ocean levels can drop as much as 200 meters current level. During that tiem island that are currently separated from mainland can be connected with land masses. During this time anacondas could have moved into Trinidad (through rivers or swims more than likely). When the oceans rose again in a next warm period, a population of anacondas became isolated from the rest of South American.
Another possible origin of anacondas in Trinidad is by drifting on a log after a storm. Often storms carry big logs on the Orinoco (a massive river). An anaconda surprised by the flood in the river can easily hang on the log (as the dislike deep water). If this log is sent out to see, ocean currents could drive them to Trinidad (this has been documented to happen with iguanas in real time). If I had to make a guess, i would say that this is the origin of the Trinitarian anacondas.
As for the ones in Florida, they are more than likely pets, that some one let go when they became too large. not sure they can survive in the Florida weather for too long. Not if they are green anacondas. Yellow anacondas, is a completely different story. They occur in Southern South America where the weather is very similar to that of the Everglades. They would survive and thrive in Florida if they got introduced
Thanks for your interest
Happy New Year
Jesus”

So Max you, were right.

 

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Isn't that crazy. Same thing happened with the pet rock.

People got tired of taking care of them, and let them loose to fend for themselves.

Poor things!

 

Well, at least they won't go breading like those nasty pythons...

And they are so easy to tame, just in case someone wants to take one in.

I've got lots of itsy-bitsy ones that I use to make into circuits...

 

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