The jaw-dropping news out of Florida this week for America's science community was not Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich's ambitious pledge to establish a moon colony. In science circles, that's the kind of news that generates a rash of internet memes, mash-ups and gleefully irreverent cartoons.
No, the news that's gone viral is detailed in a research paper published online in PNAS (for those not familiar with the acronym, that's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ... so the shortened version is fine, except perhaps for those with a Kiwi accent) which looks at mammal declines in Florida's famous Everglades National Park. And the news is not good.
The research paper, and its 11 authors, have tracked dramatic declines in mammals and birds against the proliferation of an invasive pest - the Burmese python. Averaging just under 6m, and weighing around 91kg, they're among the world's biggest snakes. The PNAS paper is reporting that from a seven-year survey shows a 99.3 per cent decline in raccoon sightings in the Everglades, a 98.9 per cent decline in opossums and an 87.5 per cent decline in bobcats. That's within a whisker of a wipe-out for all three species.
Ironically, the pythons are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as likely to become threatened in their native countries (southern and south-east Asia) unless strict trade regulations are enforced. They are powerful animals, capable of killing even large and aggressive creatures such as leopards and alligators. Gruesome photos regularly surface on the internet of Burmese pythons swallowing deer carcasses, devouring herons, or wrestling with alligators. But there are also dozens of photos showing pythons as pets - draped around people's necks, being sat on by giggling children and snoozing under coffee tables in suburban American loungerooms. There are websites arguing a proposed US Federal ban on Burmese pythons is ''based on flawed science'' and will destroy a lucrative pet trade worth more than $US100 million.
A report by the US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates more than 99,000 Burmese pythons (or ''burms'', as the pro-python lobby calls them) were imported to the US between 1996 and 2006. Countless thousands are also captive bred each year for sale as pets, selling at US reptile trade shows for as little as $20 for a hatchling, and up to $80 for a yearling python. But just as fluffy little blue-eyed husky pups turn into powerful dogs needing a strenuous daily exercise routine, young and prettily-pattern ''burms'' grow into 5m predators. So what do you do with a giant snake that's costing a small fortune to feed, outgrown your apartment and scared the heck out of the neighbours? Unfortunately for Florida, the solution for many irresponsible pet owners has been to release the snakes - illegally - into the wild, where they have bred up in large numbers.
Could it happen here? Yes, says Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre chief executive Andreas Glanznig.
''We're already seeing a serious threat emerging with the popularity of exotic pets like corn snakes and boa constrictors,'' he says.
''It's very real, and it's being driven by the internet. Exotic snakes are already on our radar as among the the next wave of new pest species.''
The Canberra-based centre recently published a report which analysed ''seizures, surrenders and thefts'' of exotic species in Australia over the past decade, as well as animals detected as stowaways. Exotic reptiles including corn snakes and boas were the most common illegally kept species reported, and ''a wide variety of exotic reptiles were seized or surrendered,'' the report says. There were ''multiple smuggling incidents'' detected, involving numbers of corn snakes, boa constrictors, South American rainbow boas and rosy boas (native to desert areas of south-west US and Mexico).
''Our small mammals are already in enough strife, and if these snakes become established as feral pests, that will only exacerbate the problems they face,'' Glanznig says.
Customs data analysed by the report reveals more than 230 boa constrictors were seized, surrendered or stolen in NSW and Queensland over the past decade. More than 200 corn snakes were seized - again from NSW and Queensland - over the same period, and 25 Burmese pythons. And more snakes are turning up (illegally) in the post. Customs found 29 corn snakes in two parcels posted from Britain, and 12 Burmese pythons in two parcels posted from Sweden. Boa constrictors were discovered in three parcels sent from Greece and Britain. A passenger arriving at Brisbane airport, from Holland via Thailand, was found to have more than 20 pythons concealed in luggage and on their person.
''The global trade in wildlife involves billions of live animals, with animals being collected from wild populations in more than 190 countries around the world, and many others being bred in captivity, primarily to supply the demand for pet and hobby animals. It is inevitable that there will be increasing interest in importing exotic wildlife into Australia, by both legal and illegal means,'' the report says.
It rates corn snakes and boa constrictors as potentially serious pest threats. Corn snakes have ''a high climate match to most of the Australian mainland'' and are a ''generalist predator that preys on a wide range of insects, amphibians, lizards, small mammals and birds and has the potential to become a widespread and abundant invasive pest in Australia. The boa constrictor has ''a very high climate match to the northern half of Australia and has the potential to harm people, and domestic and native animals that may become prey.'' Slow moving tropical species such as lemuroid possums and tree kangaroos would not fare well, nor would cassowary chicks, bandicoots or small wallabies.
Earlier this week, the CRC launched a national pest management road show, which will travel to around 20 regional cities across Australia. At the launch in Queanbeyan, local grazier and CRC board member Helen Cathles spoke about the economic and psychological impact of feral pests on farmers. She runs a 4000ha property at Wee Jasper, north-west of Canberra, farming fine-wool Merinos and Angora goats. One of the slides she used in her presentation showed a goat that had been attacked by wild dogs, and that had most of its jaw and muzzled ripped away. The goat was euthanased, but Cathles stressed the animals could suffer for days, eventually starving to death, if not discovered relatively quickly after an attack. She likened the impact of dealing with dog attacks to ''the trauma of having your house broken into'' repeatedly. ''People don't get over it. The trauma sits with them forever,'' she says.
Cathles explained that wild dog attacks on livestock had ''a huge impact'' of farm management. It meant extra veterinary bills, working out where to move stock across a property to ensure safety, searching for missing animals and checking fencing. ''Everything you have planned to do on the farm, has to stop while you deal with the problem,'' she says.
But she also warned that unless the problem of increasing wild dog attacks was dealt with by better pest management programs, Australian wool - already under attack on world market for mulesing - could encounter a new backlash from animal welfare organisations.
''These days there are always inquires about animal welfare in relation to farm production. Imagine the impact on trade if people took the view that production of our wool garments involved a risk to the animals from dog attacks. It would be a massive negative,'' she says.
Last year, the Federal member for Gippsland, Nationals MP Darren Chester made a private members business speech on the impact of wild dog attacks in his electorate in eastern Victoria.
''I am already hearing anecdotal reports in my electorate of Gippsland of wild dogs becoming less frightened, less timid. Farmers are telling me of packs of dogs shadowing their moves from a distance as they tend to their stock. I fear that an injured bushwalker or a young child could be at risk from attack in the future, and I fear that it will take such a horrible incident to make decision makers at all levels of government properly fund on-the-ground measures to reduce the impact of wild dogs on regional communities,'' Chester says.
''Wild dogs are conservatively estimated to cost the Australian agricultural sector in excess of $60 million per year, and they are an enormous source of anger and frustration in many regional communities ... The loss of productivity in Gippsland alone is estimated at $60 million, as farmers have fled from those areas and no longer stock them with sheep.''
Chester also talked about the social and emotional impacts, saying many farming families had told him of ''severe mental health issues stemming from regularly viewing very traumatic scenes'' of stock attacks by packs of wild dogs. ''The emotional toll is enormous in regional communities,'' he says. Robert Belcher, a Snowy River region farmer who has campaigned against the social and environmental impact of managed investment forestry schemes in rural areas, also told Chester that ''every time he opened up a wild dog after it was trapped or had been shot he found it chock-a-block full of either sheep or echidnas.'' Chester remarked that it was ''disappointing'' that green lobby groups did not seem to be addressing the impact of wild dog predation on native wildlife.
At the Queanbeyan launch of the CRC roadshow, the centre's National Wild Dog Facilitator, Queensland-based scientist Greg Mifsud, spoke about the impact of wild dogs on Queensland's diminishing koala population. The impact of wild dog attacks on native biodiversity is often overlooked, he says.
Last year, Mifsud addressed the Senate inquiry into the status and future of Australia's koala populations. He told the inquiry he did ''not believe that until recently we have had a handle on just how great the impacts [of wild dog attacks] could be on koala populations.'' Asked if the dogs were native dingos, Mifsud replied that research data on dogs tracked during an ecological study ''showed that most of them had less than 75 per cent dingo genes left in their genetic make-up.'' Around Charleville in south-west Queensland, dog control programs had ''taken out'' around 2100 dogs in just two years, he says. But when he raised these numbers with koala researchers in the region, he found they had not considered wild dogs as a possible factor in the decline of koala numbers.
''When I told them of the numbers that we got out of the immediate area that they surveyed, they were quite shocked that the potential was there for that decline [due to dog attacks] and they had not considered it. I think it is underestimated ... Impacts on livestock and pets are recorded [by local government agencies] but impacts on biodiversity are not. So I think there is a huge potential there for impact,'' he says. The message for government policy makers is that ''problems caused by invasive pests are complex, becoming well-entrenched and are not going to go away,'' says Andres Glanznig. And as well as the complexities of developing efficient pest control measures, there's the need to address what he calls ''the Basil Brush factor,'' he says.
''Or the Bambi factor in the case of feral deer, or the Bugs Bunny factor in relation to rabbits. People love animals - look at the popularity of natural history programs on television. Kids see cartoons depicting cute animals as loveable characters, living in jungle environments where all the animals are great friends and nobody attacks or eats anyone else.
''But at some stage, we need to explain that things get far more complicated, especially with destructive pest species that can start taking big chunks out of an ecosystem.'' The dilemma lies in how to do this without creating a ''culture of cruelty'' toward feral animals, he says.
And as the Florida example shows, the commercial pet trade - often emotively pitched at children - can cost biodiversity dearly. last month, the US Government announced a ban on imports of four snake species, including Burmese pythons. But it's estimated that as many as 30,000 pythons may be living in the Everglades, and with an average python nest containing up to 70 eggs, that number could quickly double. But despite all the lurid media reports of alligator wrestling ''serial killer pythons'' lurking in Florida swamps, there's a lesson here for Australia.
''You've got to identify problem pests at an early stage, and act decisively,'' says Glanznig. As for the raccoons, opossums and bobcats, the scientists who published the PNAS paper don't know if those decimated populations can ever recover.
Rosslyn Beeby is Science and Environment Reporter
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