Why aren’t there Burmese python cases south of Florida into South America, assuming the further south you go the better the climate for these constrictors! Would they not be considered as an invasive species and cause havoc to the local wildlife like lets say in Costa Rica

Question

Why aren’t there Burmese python cases south of Florida into South America, assuming the further south you go the better the climate for these constrictors! Would they not be considered as an invasive species and cause havoc to the local wildlife like lets say in Costa Rica

In: Biology

Answer 1

They became a problem here because of people buying them as pets, not realizing how big they get, and then releasing them. Costa Rica doesn’t really import many Burmese pythons as pets.

They exist invasively in Florida because it’s their climate, but they can’t spread on their own down to e.g. Costa Rica because there’s a lot of climate they can’t survive in between here and there.

And lastly if you were to release Burmese pythons in Costa Rica, they have their own large snakes like boa constrictor and a larger variety of predators. I don’t think they would compete as well as they do in Florida.