Tracking Pythons: The Quest to Catch an Invasive Predator and Save an Ecosystem
Those antennas pick up signals from transmitters inside the snakes on the ground Yesterday Argo’s signal told them he was hiding out behind this nursery somewhere Today we’ve come to find him It’s just after noon on a Tuesday in early April 2018 The sun is high in the sky and light wind rustles the tall grass Vines and roots grab at our hiking boots as we push through weeds so thick we can’t see the ground much less a snake Beep beep beep The signal was quiet at first but it’s getting louder with every step If we turn the wrong way the sound will grow quieter It’s like the hot and cold game you play when someone has hidden something and gives clues as the other person searches You’re cold cold getting warmer you’re hot now Hot In this case the louder the beep the closer researchers are to their target Bartoszek brushes aside grass that’s taller than he is and we push deeper into the weeds He holds the receiver’s antenna high over his head and warns the rest of us to watch our step in the tangled vines When the beeping gets even louder Bartoszek stops He turns in a slow circle I think I’m kind of standing on him He’s somewhere right in here We all look down at our feet It’s a strange feeling to know that an 11-foot 3 4 m python may be lurking just inches from where we stand Perhaps right under our boots hidden in the thick mat of vines that covers everything in sight 6 Beep beep beep Bartoszek turns the antenna once more The sound gets louder near a particular clump of vegetation Let’s see if we can get a visual he says Bartoszek hacks at the vines with a machete while fellow researcher Ian Easterling tries to push through the brush from the other side The beeping continues loud and clear They’ve found their snake They just can’t see him They continue to hack at the vines but Argo stays hidden for now The scientists can’t afford to spend any more time here They have a list of other pythons to find and check in on today Conservancy intern Monica Lasky jots down Argo’s Researchers push through the brush as they track a radio-tagged Burmese python
location recording the type of habitat and temperature and then we all head back to the truck These researchers understand that the odds are against them when they go out searching for pythons It’s hard enough even when the pythons have transmitters When they’re looking for untracked snakes in the vast expanse of Southwest Florida’s scrublands and swamps it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack But sometimes they get lucky If wrestling with a snake is your idea of lucky Bartoszek has been squeezed bitten and peed on in his mission to find and capture invasive pythons in Southwest Florida all in an effort to control a reptile that was never supposed to be here in the first place Pythons are native to Southeast Asia But in 1979 one turned up dead on a stretch of South Florida highway Where did it come from Was it a pet that had grown too big to manage Had its owners set it free at the edge of the swamp Scientists may never know the answer to those questions but they do know that python wasn’t the only one living in the wild More were spotted in the 1980s and 1990s and by 2000 scientists understood that Burmese pythons had established a breeding population in South Florida Today descendants of those once-captive snakes are threatening to squeeze out native species Because pythons are so good at hiding we can only guess how many make their homes in South Florida now Scientists estimate that number is certainly in the tens of thousands and might be over three hundred thousand Ian Bartoszek follows a radio signal to the tangle of roots where one of his tagged pythons is hiding What’s to stop them from disrupting an already-fragile ecosystem to the point where it might never be the same Enter the python scientists a team of biologists at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida This is the story of their mission to uncover the mysteries of the region’s Burmese python population by tracking catching and studying the giant snakes that are taking over South Florida They’ve recruited an unlikely ally in the battle the snakes themselves 7
MEET THE PYTHON SCIENTISTS Who would want to work in the sweltering heat of South Florida tromping through marshes full of mosquitoes Not surprisingly the people who choose this work are here because they’re fascinated by the natural world IAN BARTOSZEK Title environmental science python project manager Conservancy of Southwest Florida Education bachelor of science in wildlife and fisheries science from the University of Arizona Bartoszek loved turning over rocks to look for salamanders when he was a kid In high school he had two pet albino pythons that escaped in his house sometimes so he had early practice at tracking hard-to-find snakes One time a python got out of its tank while the family had guests They didn’t mention the escape to their visitors but after their company left they found the missing snake curled up in the guest room closet IAN EASTERLING Title field technician Conservancy of Southwest Florida Education bachelor of science in integrative biology from Elon University Easterling’s fascination with animals goes back as far as he can remember In kindergarten he always came home with animals-of-the-world activity pages and he loved watching Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter on TV In college he got to work with lions tigers and wolves at a conservation center in North Carolina Easterling wrote on his Conservancy job application that he was good at reaching and lifting both good skills if part of your job is going to involve dragging 100-pound 45 kg pythons out of the woods 8
KATIE KING Title 2019 2020 python intern Conservancy of Southwest Florida Education bachelor of science in wildlife biology from California Polytechnic State University King knew way back in sixth grade that she wanted to be a wildlife biologist Her fascination with snakes began in college when she participated in a rattlesnake research project in California I love working with rattlesnakes because it’s really cool and exciting but you can’t handle them You always have to use tongs to put them in a bucket and it’s always super dangerous King says But here you can actually jump on a python and grab it MONICA LASKY Title 2018 2019 python intern Conservancy of Southwest Florida Education bachelor of science in zoology from North Carolina State University As a child Lasky loved visiting the zoo She was also an avid horseback rider who worked as a trail guide for a while She remembers one day when she was riding along and saw a little green tree snake on the tree next to her Some people in her group were horrified and one cried out Eww it’s a snake Lasky replied But it’s a snake that’s so cool She felt as if she was able to make them look differently at snakes that day I was able to tell them how important snakes are and how scary they aren’t 9
