Florida moves to ban anacondas, raccoon dogs, gigantic bats – via Herp Digest

By Kimberly Miller, Daily Commercial, 2/26/19

With invasive pythons running rampant in the Everglades, the state is trying to keep additional exotics from gaining a foothold with new rules approved this week.

Invasive pythons run rampant in the Everglades and imported iguana burrow into canal banks with abandon, but Florida is trying to keep additional exotics from gaining a foothold in the state with new rules approved this week.

Critters, including several species of anaconda, the raccoon dog and a freaky fruit bat called the flying fox were added to the state’s prohibited species list by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission on Thursday in Gainesville.

The animals are already on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s list of “injurious” species, meaning they can’t be imported into the country. But because they aren’t on Florida’s list of prohibited species, they can come into the state from other states, be used for commercial purposes, and kept as pets.

“I think there could be a case for educational purposes, but for the guy on roller blades at the beach with a snake around his neck, does he really need a yellow anaconda?” said Audubon Florida Executive Director Julie Wraithmell, who supported the ban. “Floridians are with you on this and so is Florida’s wildlife, they just can’t speak here today.”

Yellow anacondas, one of the three species of anaconda put on the prohibited list this week, can grow to 15 feet long, according to a University of Florida research paper. In the wild, they could also eat just about everything they find, including “nearly all fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals native to Florida,” the paper notes.

“This is what we are trying to prevent,” said FWC spokesperson Carli Segelson.

In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed three anaconda species and the reticulated python as “injurious reptiles” noting that it was criticized for waiting until 2012 to escalate the Burmese python threat.

It’s unknown how many Burmese pythons roam the Everglades, but estimates are in the tens of thousands. Hunters with the 2-year-old water management district’s python elimination program had killed 1,985 snakes as of Tuesday.

“Every python removed from the system gives native animals down there a fighting chance,” said Mike Kirkland, a South Florida Water Management District scientist and project manager for its python elimination program. “Our program is the most successful management tool to date, but it’s just one tool in a large toolbox.”

Segelson said there are no reports of raccoon dogs — a fox-like animal indigenous to East Asia — in the wild in Florida. Also, no flying foxes — giant fruit bats with wing spans of up to 6 feet — have been spotted. But they are considered high-risk species that could make a home in the state.

Other animals on the list for prohibition include the brown tree snake, mongoose, brushtail possum and Java sparrow.

Several speakers Thursday urged commissioners to put anacondas in a less restrictive management category saying an outright ban will push people underground or cause them to release snakes that are no longer marketable.

“I don’t want people to get ticked off at the commission and go to the black market,” said Eugene Bessette, owner of Ophiological Services in Archer. “These snakes are valuable. They are worth hundreds of dollars as a baby and thousands as an adult.”

The new prohibition would grandfather in anacondas kept as a pet and give dealers a chance to sell their current snakes outside of the state. Other states don’t have the same restrictions on importation because the animals are less likely to survive in the wild. The rule also allows for the use of anacondas in zoos, and for research and educational purposes.

According to the FWC, more than 12 million wild-caught reptiles from elsewhere in the world were imported into the U.S. between 1999 and 2010. That included more than 9 million that came through Florida ports.

“The yellow anaconda is one of the few opportunities where you are at the very edge of the invasion curve where it hasn’t happened yet,” said Kipp Frohlich, FWC’s director of habitat and species conservation about the anaconda. “This is the time to put them on the prohibited list.”