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ABSTRACT.-We identified 25 species of birds representing nine avian Orders from remains in digestive tracts of 85 Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) collected in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA, from 2003 to 2008. Four species of birds identified in this study are of special concern in Florida and a fifth, the Wood Stork (Mycteria americana), is listed as federally endangered. This represents the first detailed analysis of the avian component of the diet of the introduced Burmese python, now established in Everglades National Park, Florida and highlights the potential for considerable negative impact of this invasive species on native bird populations. Received 9 June 2010. Accepted 27 September 2010.
The Burmese python (Python molurus bivitattus) is now well established in Everglades National Park (ENP), Florida (Snow 2006, Snow et al. 2007c). These snakes, often considered a subspecies of the Indian python (P. molurus), can grow to 6 m and weigh 90 kg (Ernst and Zug 1996). The Burmese python was first recorded in the Everglades in 1979 and has since frequently been observed or collected in canals, along main park roads, and even in remote mangrove (red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle; black mangrove, Avicennia germinans; white mangrove, Laguncularia racemosa; buttonwood, Conocarpus erecta) backcountry areas (Snow et al. 2007a). Large specimens of this snake were reported in ENP in the 1980s (Meshaka et al. 2000) but have only been documented as breeding in the United States since 2006 (Snow et al. 2007b). The Burmese python has spread throughout ENP over the past two decades and has also been recorded in the Florida Keys and elsewhere in Florida.
Typical food items consumed by the closely related Indian python (P. molurus molurus) include mammals, amphibians, lizards, snakes, birds, and fish (Ernst and Zug 1996). Researchers are just now beginning to investigate the dietary habits of the Burmese python in ENP to help identify the impact of this invasive species on the native fauna (Snow et al. 2007a). Mammal species recorded as prey by the Burmese python in ENP include rodents and carnivores (Snow et al. 2007a), and as reported by Greene et al. (2007), the endangered Key Largo woodrat (Neotoma floridana smalli).
We identified birds consumed by Burmese pythons in ENP from 2003 to 2008 using a combination...