Florida’s python hunt used 3M camera photos and found only four snakes
A Florida study using captive female Burmese pythons as lures to trap invasive males in the Everglades yielded minimal results, with only four detections despite 3 million camera photos. Researchers suggest that captivity stress may have inhibited the pheromones necessary to attract wild males.
Why it matters
The failure of this method highlights the ongoing difficulty in managing invasive species and the need for more effective, science-based control strategies.
Florida scientists used female Burmese pythons as live lures to find invasive males in the Everglades, but 3 million camera-trap photos produced only four python detections.A study published in the journal Southeastern Naturalist shows that placing wild-caught female Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) in cages across the Greater Everglades Ecosystem failed to draw in wild males.Over a 90-day field test at 12 locations, researchers filtered more than three million camera-trap photos using artificial intelligence software. They recorded just three python visits at the cages holding female lures and one visit at empty control cages.The study, titled "Not so fatal attraction: Captive female Burmese Python lures do not improve wild python detection," was written by Alex D. Potash, Maggie Jones, Michael Kirkland, Jenna Cole, Kristen Hart, and Robert A. McCleery.
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