Florida’s giant pythons finally have a new enemy, and it isn’t another predator. For years, hunters have battled the invasive snakes that have devastated the Everglades, but a surprising weapon is now changing the fight.
For two decades, the Burmese python faced no natural predators in the Florida Everglades. Neither alligators, nor hunters, nor the millions of dollars spent on eradication programs were able to stop the spread of the invasive species. In large areas of the wetlands, the snakes eliminated about 90 percent of small and medium-sized mammals before any native species began to mount an effective respon…