text: A genetic study has found that some specimens of the invasive reptile that has decimated local wildlife are a mixture of two Asian species which could make it an even more formidable predator 
   
   From carnivorous giant lizards to toxic climbing tree frogs, the Florida Everglades have become a haven to invasive species steadily destroying and devouring the flora and fauna of the state’s famed River of Grass. 
   
   Now comes news of a hybrid super-predator slithering its way through the waterways of the 1.5m-acre wilderness: a genetically blended python that researchers believe might be able to better embrace the subtropical environment and expand its range more rapidly than any species before it. 
   
   The discovery was made during a study to improve knowledge of non-native species. US Geological Survey (USGS) scientists analysed 400 snakes captured in the Everglades over a 10-year period from 2001. 
   
   The researchers expected to find only the pure genetic makeup of the Burmese python, the deadly constrictor that has exploded in numbers to supplant the American alligator as the region’s apex predator since a small number of unwanted pets were released in the 1980s. 
   
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   Instead, they were surprised to uncover “a tangled family tree”, the genetic signature of the Indian rock python present in at least 13 snakes. That species is smaller, faster and arguably more aggressive than its big cousin, and thrives on higher and drier ground. Burmese pythons are more at home in the water. 
   
   “When two species come together they each have a unique set of genetic traits and characteristics they use to increase their survival and their unique habitats and environments,” said Margaret Hunter, a USGS research geneticist and the lead author of the report. 
   
   “You bring these different traits together and sometimes the best of those traits will be selected in the offspring. That allows for the best of both worlds in the Everglades, it helps them to adapt to this new ecosystem potentially more rapidly.” 
   
   Hunter stressed that the genetic markers – found only in the snakes’ mitochondrial DNA passed down through the maternal line – do not mean a new species of super-snake has suddenly been unleashed on the Everglades. The researchers believe cross-breeding occurred before the pythons secured their foothold in Florida. 
   
   “The ones that have this signature would have to be female and breeding to pass it on to their offspring,” she said. 
   
   Also unclear is the impact of so-called “hybrid vigour” on an individual snake. 
   
   “Morphologically, lots of times if you have a hybrid between two good species, the hybrid shares the traits of both [but] how that translates to behaviour I don’t know,” said Steve Johnson, associate professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Florida. 
   
   “It would depend on what genes, what molecular information is in a hybrid and how that information relates to their behavior.” 
   
   Facebook Twitter Pinterest An adult female Burmese python captured in Everglades national park, Florida. Some specimens carry DNA from the Indian rock python. Photograph: Wayne Lynch/Getty Images/All Canada Photos 
   
   Hunter, though, still sees this as an unwelcome development that could hamper already unsuccessful efforts to reduce or eliminate up to 150,000 pythons that have decimated native species including bobcats, foxes, rabbits and raccoons from the Florida Keys to north of Lake Okeechobee. 
   
   “It can potentially lead to a better ability to adapt to environmental stressors and changes,” she said. “In an invasive population like Burmese pythons in south Florida this could result in a broader or more rapid distribution. With how rapidly they’ve [already] increased their population and expanded it appears they’re doing quite well.” 
   
   Wildlife officials admit they are fighting a losing battle. Failed initiatives have included training dogs to sniff out the snakes and releasing pythons with radio transmitters to lead hunters to females carrying up to 100 eggs at a time. 
   
   Probably the most audacious effort came last year when two renowned snake catchers from India’s mountain-dwelling Irula tribe chanted their way across the Everglades for two months. They bagged 33 pythons. But that figure, like the 1,000-plus snakes killed to date in civilian hunting programmes, is a drop in the ocean. 
   
   The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) has recorded more than 500 invasive or non-native species in the state, including tegu lizards from South America that eat rodents, Cuban tree frogs that prey on smaller species of amphibians and green iguanas that feast on native plants. ||||| What started out as a straightforward genetic study of Florida’s invasive python population has turned up a surprising plot twist: a small number of crossbred Burmese and Indian pythons with the potential to become a kind of Everglades super snake. 
   
   For the study, published Sunday in the journal Ecology and Evolution, U.S. Geological Survey researchers examined the tail tissue of 400 snakes captured in South Florida, from the Big Cypress Swamp to the Everglades. While the vast majority appeared to be closely related Burmese pythons — imagine a family reunion packed with first and second cousins — 13 had genetic markers from Indian pythons, a different species that unlike the swamp-loving Burmese snake prefers high, dry ground. 
   
   The number is clearly small, but it raises the risk that over time some Everglades snakes could become better suited to a more varied landscape. Scientists call it hybrid vigor. 
   
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   Python hunter Dusty Crum carries a python caught as part of South Florida Water Management District licensed hunting program in May. The state has been paying a select group of hunters to kill the invasive snakes on state lands since March 2017. Wilfredo Lee AP 
   
   “If the Indian pythons have a wider range, perhaps these Everglades snakes now have that capability,” said lead author and USGS geneticist Margaret Hunter. “It’s quite interesting and quite surprising, but we don’t know the extent it’s in the population.” 
   
   Because evolution seems to abhor certainty, there’s also the possibility the opposite happens through another process, she said, euphemistically referred to as ‘outbreeding depression.’ 
   
   The Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System allows researchers and citizens to report the locations of spotted pythons. Red circles indicate the sightings have been confirmed. 
   
   The study originally intended to look at the genetic make-up of South Florida snakes to better understand how they spread and how to help control them. Pythons started turning up in the 1980s, likely escapees from a South Dade breeding facility or released pets. By 2000, they were declared official residents in Everglades National Park and have since continued to expand north into the state’s expansive water conservation areas and west into Big Cypress. In 2016, they were found breeding in the Keys for the first time. 
   
   If snakes in different areas had different DNA, that might tell wildlife managers something about how they’ve been able to reproduce and spread so quickly. 
   
   “We were initially looking for the population structure to get some information to shed some light on the invasion dynamics, or the core areas where the population may be breeding and then sending off migrants,” Hunter said. 
   
   Tracker Vadivel Gopal, herpetologist Joe Wasilewski and tracker Masi Sadaiyan hold a python removed from a shaft at the old Nike missile base in Key Largo. - Joe Wasilewski 
   
   No surprise, they found low diversity among the snakes that likely are the descendants of the handful of freed snakes, called the founder effect. In small populations, a shrinking gene pool can signal a population headed toward extinction: There is a good Florida example of that. By the 1990s, the number of Florida panthers had dwindled so low that the animals started suffering from the effects of in-breeding, including heart murmurs, reproductive problems and oddly kinked tails. Texas cougars, very close cousins, were imported to add to the gene pool. 
   
   But the python population is so large — researchers believe they number in the many thousands based on the steep drop in nearly all small mammals in their range — that low diversity is not impeding the snake’s ability to adapt, Hunter said. 
   
   “Such a large population allows them to rapidly adapt,” she said. “If some animals die out because of climatic issues, there are other animals that may not die out.” 
   
   But in 13, they found that Indian marker. 
   
   “That was unexpected,” Hunter said. “I kept looking at the data to make sure what I was seeing was correct.” 
   
   University of Florida researchers show the scale of an 18-foot, 8-inch python undergoing a necropsy at their Gainesville lab in 2013. University of Florida/AP 
   
   It’s not clear where the species got crossed, she said. In their native ranges, Burmese and Indian pythons have remained mostly distinct either because of the prey they eat or barriers in habitat. But they could breed in the wild. Breeders also frequently cross species to produce more desirable colors and patterns for the pet trade. The snakes may also have hooked up in the Everglades, but Hunter said that seems less likely since the markers she detected, which are only passed down through female snakes, were historical. 
   
   Because Hunter and her colleagues focused on genetics, it’s not yet clear how climate will play into the snake’s evolution. Scientists suspect that a warming planet will allow them to roam further north. An upcoming study looking at how the snake has adapted should shed some light, she said. In the meantime, the rapid expansion has provided researchers with a rare window into evolution dynamics. 
   
   “All species do this,” Hunter said. “But we’re watching evolutionary progress right in front of us.” 
   
   
   
   
   
   An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the Indian python as a subspecies of the Burmese python. It is a separate species.
target: – A genetic study has found a new and dangerous possibility lurking in the DNA of Florida's invasive pythons. Per the Miami Herald, researchers from the US Geological Survey tested hundreds of the Everglades' already worryingly prolific giant snake species and what they found could mean an even hardier invader down the line. Where they expected to find nothing but DNA from the water-loving ancestors of carelessly released pet Burmese pythons, scientists discovered that at least 13 of 400 snakes tested showed signs of hybridization with a relative known as the Indian rock python. Unlike the Burmese, the rock python prefers to live on higher drier ground. It's also faster and smaller. Per the Guardian, this tells researchers that floating somewhere in the gene pool of Florida's estimated 150,000 pythons could be a mix of genes that could lead to a "super snake" with the ability to adapt even better to subtropical conditions in a Florida ecosystem already overrun with exotic and damaging invasives. Because researchers can't tell from their 400 snakes exactly how many of the Sunshine State's pythons are hybrids, they can't say for sure whether the added Indian rock python traits could one day make the population more adaptable to larger swaths of Florida and beyond.