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Invasive Green Anacondas Pose New Threat To Everglades Ecosystem

Florida's Everglades have been home to various invasive species over the years, but a new concern is rising with the increasing sightings of green anacondas in the region since 2000. These enormous snakes, native to South America, have captured the attention of experts and sparked worries about their impact on the delicate ecosystem.

Andrew Durso, a biology professor at FGCU, shed light on the green anacondas' characteristics, stating, "It's the world's heaviest snake. They're native to South America. They're a giant constrictor."

The males can grow up to 15 feet and weigh over 100 pounds, while females can reach staggering lengths of up to 26 feet, with the maximum recorded weight being a jaw-dropping 440 pounds, according to Durso. 

What sets green anacondas apart from other invasive snakes, like pythons, is their build.

"Pythons are long, anacondas are fat," said Durso.

The presence of smaller anacondas, even juveniles, in the wild suggests the possibility of reproduction, indicating a worrisome trend.

The concern surrounding the green anacondas centers on their invasiveness and potential impact on the Everglades. With reports of these snakes found away from civilization, there is a growing fear that their population might be larger than expected, and they could disrupt the already fragile balance of the ecosystem.

John and Suzanne Busch from Copeland express their worries about the potential consequences.

"That's scary because something can take down a lot of stuff. I worry about the deer out here and the natural animals," said John.

"It worries me because we already have so many pythons, so now we're going to have another exotic snake?" Suzanne added.

The couple is concerned about the dwindling number of small mammals in the Everglades and the disturbance caused by the introduction of yet another invasive species.

The parallels between the current green anaconda sightings and the past occurrences of Burmese pythons from the 80s and 90s are disconcerting. The experts note that this pattern bears a resemblance, raising the question of whether history might repeat itself, further exacerbating the problem.

Add A Rock To Jake The Snake. Rock Snakes Take Over In Rhode Island

It started with a green head plopped next to the sidewalk and a sign next to the oddity.

"This is Jake the Snake, add a painted rock and see how long he can get," the sign declared.

The rocks quickly started to come: rainbow rocks, floral rocks, be-kind rocks, avocado rocks. In days, there were more than 70 rocks, then 150, and then more than 300 as the snake took a serpentine course along the sidewalk at Strawberry Field Road in Warwick and around the corner. Now, there are nearly 1,000 painted rocks.

Jake the Snake has become a popular attraction in Warwick, with hundreds of rocks adding steadily to its length.

"This one is my favorite," said Lucy Lacombe, pointing to a ladybug rock. "And this one. And this one. All of them. Especially this cute little strawberry."

Jake grew in popularity as quickly as he grew in size. He made the rounds in local news, and social media loved him. He quickly became such a rock star that another snake hatched in Rocky Point State Park, Sheila H. Snake, and then on Prudence Island, Rocky the Snake made its debut and was up to 110 stones at last count. Other communities have talked about starting one of their own.

Sheila isn't doing as well as Jake, with only a few stones left on the seawall and her sign and head gone when The Journal visited on July 18.

At Rocky Point State Park, Sheila H. Snake had been reduced to a few rocks on the seawall.

What's causing the rock snakes to start?

Rock snakes are trending on TikTok and Facebook, encouraging communities to start their own to build a bit of community spirit. The basic idea is someone paints a head, comes up with a name and a sign and invites others in the community to add a painted rock of their own.

Family fun in RI: Looking for something to do in RI with the family for less than $100? Here are 5 ideas

In many ways, they are the natural evolution of Facebook groups such as Warwick Rocks, which encouraged people to paint and hide rocks for other people to find. That group, which has about 4,800 members, has been helping Jake to grow.

Who started Jake the Snake? 

Lucy Lacombe poses next to her rocks after adding her latest creations to Jake the Snake's tail.

The Strawberry Field Road snake was started by father and daughter Scott and Jenna Lee Denton, according to reporting by the Warwick Beacon. They live nearby and wanted to give children in the neighborhood something to do.

Story continues

And for kids like Lucy, Jake has been a lot of fun. With a blue streak of paint still on her forehead, she asked her dad, Thoman Lacombe, if when they got home she could paint some more rocks to add to Jake.

It was an easy yes.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rock snakes are taking over RI, but there's no need to afraid

In An Evolutionary Rarity, Sea Snakes May Have Regained Lost Color Vision

Most snakes can only see the colors blue and green, along with ultraviolet light in some cases. New research, however, suggests that sea snakes have evolved to actually regain the wider-color vision of their earliest ancestors.

Snakes evolved from lizards, which scientists believe could see in full color. Because those early snakes adopted a low-light burrowing lifestyle, however, they lost that ability over time. That said, they did develop a sensitivity to ultraviolet light, which helped them to see in the dark.

When some snakes took to life in bright, shallow ocean waters, color vision became useful again. Among other things, it could help them them pick out prey, predators and potential mates against multi-colored backgrounds.

In order to see if the snakes did regain color vision, scientists from The University of Adelaide, The University of Plymouth and The Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology analyzed the previously published genomes of five ecologically distinct species of snakes. All of the snakes were members of the elapid family.

It was found that one species, the annulated sea snake (Hydrophis cyanocinctus) is unique in that it has four copies of a gene known as opsin SWS1, instead of the usual two. Opsin SWS1 is responsible for the different types of visual pigments that allow vertebrates to perceive different wavelengths of light.

"Two of these genes have the ancestral ultraviolet sensitivity, and two have evolved a new sensitivity to the longer wavelengths that dominate ocean habitats," said University of Adelaide PhD candidate Isaac Rossetto. "We believe that recent gene duplications have dramatically expanded the range of colors sea snakes can see."

The scientists additionally state that while it's not uncommon for animals to lose opsin genes throughout the course of evolution, it is very rare for them to gain new ones – or in this case, perhaps previously used ones.

The research is described in a paper that was recently published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.

Source: University of Adelaide via EurekAlert

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