Marsh rabbit mortalities tie pythons to the precipitous decline of mammals in the Everglades |
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| Authors: | Robert A McCleery Adia Sovie Robert N Reed Mark W Cunningham Margaret E Hunter Kristen M Hart |
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| Institution: | 1.Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA;2.United States Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO, USA;3.Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Gainesville, FL, USA;4.United States Geological Survey, Southeast Ecological Science Center, Gainesville, FL, USA;5.United States Geological Survey, Southeast Ecological Science Center, Davie, FL, USA |
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| Abstract: | To address the ongoing debate over the impact of invasive species on native terrestrial wildlife, we conducted a large-scale experiment to test the hypothesis that invasive Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) were a cause of the precipitous decline of mammals in Everglades National Park (ENP). Evidence linking pythons to mammal declines has been indirect and there are reasons to question whether pythons, or any predator, could have caused the precipitous declines seen across a range of mammalian functional groups. Experimentally manipulating marsh rabbits, we found that pythons accounted for 77% of rabbit mortalities within 11 months of their translocation to ENP and that python predation appeared to preclude the persistence of rabbit populations in ENP. On control sites, outside of the park, no rabbits were killed by pythons and 71% of attributable marsh rabbit mortalities were classified as mammal predations. Burmese pythons pose a serious threat to the faunal communities and ecological functioning of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, which will probably spread as python populations expand their range. |
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| Keywords: | Burmese python marsh rabbit Everglades National Park |
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