Cold Takes Deadly Toll On Florida Wildlife - Killed Many Pythons In Everglades

[Boo]

Cold Takes Deadly Toll On Florida Wildlife
The Orlando Sentinel 1/12/09
By Ludmilla Lelis, Orlando Sentinel

From birds to bees, Florida's cold weather has taken an unprecedented
toll on some wildlife species -- requiring the rescue of more than
2,000 sea turtles, the loss of millions of dollars' worth of tropical
fish and massive fish kills in rivers and streams.

And though warm weather would offer a badly needed respite to help
their survival, there's worry that it'll be especially hard on the
animals if there's another cold snap.

"Last year we had a hard freeze in early February. I just hope it
does not play out again this year," said David Boozer, executive
director of the Florida Tropical Fish Farms Association and the
Florida Aquaculture Association.

Florida is the top producer of tropical aquarium fish, an industry
worth $43 million a year, but dozens of farms have suffered massive
die-offs of their fish stock, Boozer said. Some farms have lost 75
percent to 90 percent of their fish, which are kept in ponds and
lakes.

"Goldfish and koi are coldwater fish, but some stock are so
acclimated to the warm weather that there have been problems," Boozer
said. "The true tropical varieties, such as African and South
American cichlids, have been hit heavily."

The losses will make it tough for some farms to recover, and aquarium
owners may have trouble finding some varieties, or they might see
higher prices. Florida fish-farm owners are worried about losing
market share to competing fish farms in China.

Most farms have hatcheries with breeding fish to rebuild stock, but
it'll take months for some farms to recover and another cold snap
would make it difficult to start that recovery, Boozer said.

SEA TURTLES

Florida sea-turtle rehabilitators have organized a massive rescue of
more than 2,000 turtles suffering cold-stun syndrome. The cold water
paralyzes them, making them unable to swim or feed.

Allen Foley, wildlife biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission, said hundreds of turtles have been pulled
out of the Indian River Lagoon, which stretches through Volusia and
Brevard and three other counties. Hundreds more turtles have been
rescued from St. Joseph's Bay in the Panhandle and the Tampa Bay area.

Many of the Indian River Lagoon turtles were taken to warehouses in
Brevard County, where they can be triaged and sent to rehabilitation
centers.

"It's disturbing to see that many animals coming in," said Brian
Stacy, a veterinarian with the University of Florida College of
Veterinary Medicine and the National Marine Fisheries Services who
helped in one of the triage warehouses. "It's madness."

Every place capable of caring for sea turtles has been overwhelmed.
SeaWorld Orlando has 140 sea turtles in its care and had 20 others
that didn't survive. Volusia County's Marine Science Center in Ponce
Inlet has had 67 sea turtles come in from the cold, including several
200-pound green sea turtles.

Tammy Bolerjack, turtle-rehabilitation specialist at the Volusia
facility, said the turtles need a few days to warm up but have
recovered quickly, and some are ready to be released.

The Panhandle turtles haven't fared as well, Foley said. About 25
percent of those didn't survive the cold.

On Tuesday, about 60 turtles rescued during the early days of the
cold spell were released Tuesday at John U. Lloyd Beach State Park in
Broward County.

BIRDS

Volusia's facility has also rehabilitated several dozen seabirds,
including northern gannets, brown pelicans and several species of
gulls and terns that suffered in the cold. As with other wildlife,
the cold slows their metabolism.

Some pelagic birds, including several northern gannets, were
emaciated and have needed additional fluids.

Volusia officials hope to release several of the birds later this
week as the weather warms up.

FISH KILLS

Hundreds of warm-water fish have died in rivers, streams and lakes,
with at least 40 fish kills reported to the state database - from
large barracuda in mangroves in the Keys, to large schools of mullet,
sheepshead and snook near the east coast and amberjack and catfish in
Tampa Bay.

The fish kills have caused a feeding frenzy among birds, according to
local bird watchers.

Wildlife officials have warned anglers that fishing regulations still apply.

MANATEES

Manatees have been taking refuge from the cold at springs and canals
near power plants and other pockets of available warm water. Blue
Spring State Park has hit new records this winter, with a one-day
record of 311 manatees counted Jan. 8.

Cold water can be lethal to the sea cows. The weather was a key
factor in last year's death-tally record, with 56 of the 429 manatee
deaths blamed on the cold.

This year, two manatees have died and four have been rescued from
cold stress, including a 7-foot young female pulled out of a canal in
the St. Petersburg area last week. On Tuesday, the animal-care team
of SeaWorld Orlando rescued another young female manatee, a
1-year-old, 280-pound sea cow found by Sebastian Inlet.

Dr. Scott Gearhart, senior staff veterinarian, said the manatee had
the classic symptoms of cold stress, with whitish discoloration on
her face and swelling on her flippers and paddle.

"It does not appear that she is going to be that severe, but being as
young as she is, she could be susceptible to infections, so we have
her on antibiotics," Gearhart said. "Overall, she is in good
condition, so we hope for a full recovery."

BEES

David Webb, a commercial beekeeper and owner of Webb's Honey in east
Orange County, said that most of the bee colonies have come through
the cold weather unscathed. But now that weather is getting warmer,
the bees might have to travel farther to gather nectar from blossoms.

"The bees, by and large, did fine during the cold," Webb said. "They
huddle together in the hive and keep each other warm. The biggest
problem is that the cold messes up the flowering plants. If the
citrus blooms drop, and if a lot of the wildflowers and weeds die,
there are fewer blooms for the bees to work with."
__________________________________________________ _________________________

Cold Snap Killed Many Pythons In Everglades
Pythons, Iguanas, Non-Native Fish Died In January Freeze
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 2/11/09
By David Fleshler and Lisa J. Huriash, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Vultures circled over Everglades National Park's Anhinga Trail, where
thousands of dead non-native fish floated in the marshes.

About half the Burmese pythons found in the park in the past few
weeks were dead.

Dead iguanas have dropped from trees onto patios across South
Florida. And in western Miami-Dade County, three African rock pythons
- powerful constrictors that can kill people - have turned up dead.

Although South Florida's warm, moist climate has nurtured a vast
range of non-native plants and animals, a cold snap last month
reminded these unwanted guests they're not in Burma or Ecuador
anymore.

Temperatures that dropped into the 30s killed Burmese pythons,
iguanas and other marquee names in the state's invasive species zoo.

Although reports so far say the cold has not eliminated any of them,
it has sharply reduced their numbers, which some say may indicate
South Florida is not as welcoming to invaders as originally thought.

"Anecdotally, we might have lost maybe half of the pythons out there
to the cold," said Scott Hardin, the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission's exotic species coordinator. "Iguanas
definitely. From a collection of observations from people, more than
50 percent fatality on green iguanas. Green iguanas really got hit
hard. Lots of freshwater fish died; no way to estimate that."

The cold snap has played into a highly politicized debate over how to
prevent non-native species from colonizing the United States. Reptile
dealers and hobbyists strongly oppose a proposal by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to ban the import of and interstate trade in Burmese
pythons and several other large snakes. They say South Florida's cold
snap shows these species don't threaten to spread north, as some
claim, and a federal crackdown is unnecessary.

"Pythons are tropical animals," said Andrew Wyatt, president of the
United States Association of Reptile Keepers. "When temperatures fall
below a certain level, they are unable to survive. It reinforces the
idea that the pythons can't exist more than a short period of time
north of Lake Okeechobee. Even the pythons in the Everglades are
dying during the cold snap."

Wyatt said scientists are downplaying the effect of cold weather on
the pythons because that would undermine their ability to win grants (gee, those scientists are such an honest bunch, aren't they?)
to study a problem that has received international publicity.

"It's all about money," he said. "It's very little to do with the
truth of fundamental problems on the ground."

But federal and state wildlife officials say the cold weather has not
solved the problem. Not only did pythons survive, but so did other
invasive species, even if the cold set them back a bit.

Along the park's Gulf Coast, where old-world climbing ferns lay dense
mats over native trees, the cold snap inflicted frost damage on these
invaders from Asia and Australia, said David Hallac, chief biologist
at Everglades National Park. But it didn't kill them, he said, and
they continue to spread.

And although they receive less publicity than pythons, non-native
fish have infested the Everglades. The cold weather apparently killed
them in the thousands, including the Mayan cichlid, walking catfish
and spotfin spiny eel, Hallac said. But at the bottom of canals and
other water bodies, pockets of warm water allowed some of these fish
to survive, he said, giving them a chance to repopulate the park once
the weather warms up.

No one knows how many Burmese pythons live in the Everglades, where
they were released as unwanted pets or where they found refuge after
hurricanes destroyed their breeding facilities. But what's certain is
there are a lot fewer today than there were a month ago.

Greg Graziani, a police officer who owns a reptile breeding facility,
is one of several licensed python hunters who stalk the snakes in the
Everglades. In four days of snake hunting, he found two dead snakes,
two live ones, and one snake on the verge of death.

"Vultures had pecked through 12 inches by 4 inches down the back of
this animal's body," he said. "I thought it was dead and we reached
down to pick it up and it was very much alive."

In cold weather, Graziani said, pythons go into a catatonic state,
and if they don't make it to a safe place to ride out the weather,
freeze to death. "We're finding the smaller pythons are handling it
better than the large ones - the smaller ones can get into different
cracks and crevices to maintain the temperatures they need."

Joe Wasilewski, of Homestead, a wildlife biologist who hunts pythons
in the Everglades, said that on a single day in late January he found
seven live snakes and seven dead ones.

"You don't see dead ones like that for no reason," he said. "And they
were laid out like they were caught by the onslaught of the cold, the
way the carcasses were lined up."

[RobsCornField]

And they still think they're going to take over half the country. That USGS "study" needs to be re-evaluated.

[Boo]

Yeah, well of course they probably figured in "manmade global warming" expecting all of N America to be like the everglades in a few years!

I'm learning scientists can be the biggest "boobs" - they should be required to take an oath like doctors - do no harm!

[BallPythonLuver]

That's crazy, at least it shows that they won't be able to survive anywhere else(duh) so this large snake ban s373 is rediculous... but most things publicly said about snakes are rediculous.

[Boo]

Yeah, one thing they don't mention is many pythons that survive this initially will eventually die because of the stress.

[Herp_junky]

Ya there's no telling how many have come down with URI from the snap. Hopefully this will help aid in people seeing the truth of wether or not they can survive north of that area. Kinda hard to argue with but I'm sure they'll think of some nonsense.

[VenomBabe]

This is good and bad. The amount of wildlife in Florida is outrageous. The amount of pythons is too many because of irresponsible owners. So, this is good for control. VERY bad for reptiles and very sad.

I do hope that all of those snakes that did survive don't get URI's.