In the 1980s, Burmese pythons invaded Florida’s Everglades, and decades later raccoons fell 99.3%, opossums 98.9% and bobcats 87.5%

For years, the Everglades was known for its tangled wetlands, alligators and an abundance of smaller mammals moving through the vegetation. Then an animal from south-east Asia began spreading through the marshes. Burmese pythons, most likely introduced through the pet trade, have established a breeding population in southern Florida and now occupy large parts of the Everglades. Their presence has coincided with an extraordinary change in some native mammal populations. Raccoons, opossums and bobcats have become far less common in areas where the snakes have been established for the longest time, while rabbits have virtually disappeared from some surveys.

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