Invasive Species of South Florida | Documentary | AAHSFF 2020 Official Selection

the Everglades protects a very unique ecosystem like none other there's a biodiversity found here that is unique to North America you have a temporary ecosystem colliding with a tropical ecosystem and thus wildlife that's not found anywhere else even on our planet the Everglades [Music] South Florida's fragile ecosystem is facing a threat on a scale never before seen in the form of non-native animals known as invasive species so invasive species are non-native species that can inflict a lot of damage on an ecosystem both in terms of affecting the native wildlife and also having an economic impact on the national park an invasive species is an animal that is not native to a certain area and it has a detrimental effect on the ecosystem of that area the Python is invasive and it can grow to the 200 pounds and 20 feet long and it becomes top of the food chain so actually the Python can destroy the whole natural food chain of the Everglades and to have a healthy environment you have to have a healthy food chain so the Burmese python is a non-native species that's invasive in the state of Florida and what that means is that it's causing some sort of impact in our ecosystem so right now we know that they're impacting our native fish and wildlife and there's also social or economic impacts as well so people who may not want to come down to Florida because they're afraid that if they go into the Everglades they could encounter a Python so this is a Burmese python today these snakes are native to Southeast Asia high places like India Burma places over on that side of the world so they're not supposed to be here in Florida but they are now right now this guy is pretty small he's only about one and a half years old but won't take much longer before he becomes a much larger snake these snakes can get up to 20 feet long in Florida the record currently is 18 feet 8 inches and that's when these guys are going to become a real problem for some of our native wildlife because these are predators and they're our generalist predators at that meaning they'll eat just about any wildlife that they can they feel like they can tackle and so it's become a real problem in the Florida Everglades and so we want to make sure that people are aware that these are non-native and that we do promote members of the public going out and helping us remove these pythons so long as they can do so in a safe manner at Sawgrass recreation park no one would know the dangers of the Burmese python better than the reptile keepers hi my name is Troy I'm a reptile keeper here at Sawgrass recreation park to my partner here my name is Nick I'm also a reptile keeper here at Sawgrass and this is our Burmese python [Music] they are invasive species which means that they don't they're not from here however they've pretty much taken over there are amongst the top five largest snakes the females are typically a lot larger anywhere ranging from 15 and up however the male's they'll typically stay a lot smaller an animal of this size can eat a lot and the trouble with these animals is that even when they're babies they are gonna be eating mice and rats and even once they are to this size they are still capable of taking down rats which means that they will not be shifting their prey items they will be constantly putting pressures on the populations of animals they target and this is very bad because these animals will now have no chance for the populations to rebound and this can wipe out a lot of our native species [Music] well the Python is the invader of the glades the lionfish is the Python of the ocean so lionfish are extremely invasive here in Florida that means they're not from here they're originally from the indo-pacific they're thought to come here from the aquarium trade the first sighting of lionfish in Florida was off the coast of Miami in 1984 since then their populations have exploded so they can get pretty decent-sized they aren't edible even though they are venomous so you can see if you can see the lionfish here they do have 13 venomous spines on the top dorsal then they'll have one on each pelvic fin on the underside of them as well as three spines on their anal fin with a total of 18 venomous spines lionfish is it's an invasive species to Florida it's a South Pacific animal in the ocean and it has been introduced into the Florida waters then it has no natural predator so there's nothing to control the population of a lionfish lionfish are very detrimental to our reef systems here again because they don't have anything that's it's not controlling the population there's no predators that will eat or control that population and because of that lionfish will reproduce and reproduce and reproduce and they eat everything on the reef so they stay over time will start to destroy the reef beyond the glades in the ocean the invasives are breeding right in our own neighborhood so it was one night it was 11 o'clock at night we were letting the dogs out for their final walk and they went out came back in gave him their treats and then brandy just started acting a little funny she ended up going into a full seizure we didn't know what was going on so we thought maybe she ate something wasn't feeling well a couple minutes later she started losing her bowel control seizing again so we grabbed her took her to a 24-hour vet and they kept her there put her on intravenous the cane toad aka the Bufo toad is a non-native reptile that poses a lethal danger to our pets the large toads are known for their poisonous secretions on their backs if ingested these can cause seizures and even death for our own beloved pets luckily she was okay because she is a pretty big dog but if it was a smaller dog you know they probably would not have made it take something with you whether it's a broom the frogs aren't gonna really hurt you but you want to be able to shoo them away because when you do come across them where the dog runs up to them they don't move they will just stay there some of them are really really big so they're not afraid of the dogs and they're not afraid of you although invasive species like the Python lionfish and cane toad are in the news every day other invasives such as the iguana black and white tegu and the tokay gecko also pose a threat to our ecosystem and invasive species doesn't just apply to animals Melaleuca trees are native to Australia and when they were first brought to Florida in the early part of the 1900s their strict purpose was to provide windbreaks but most importantly to actually assist in draining the Everglades the goal was to develop South Florida and to provide areas where cities could be built and so their biggest threat is that they drained the water that is found here the limited water resources that we have in the other glades invaders of all kind are wreaking havoc on Florida's many fragile ecosystems but with like-minded people working together there's hope morning everyone welcome on behalf of a tremendous partnership with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission the South Florida Water Management District welcome to this morning's event on the Python bow so the Florida Python challenge is an event that we've been holding every few years that helps bring awareness to this really important issue in our Everglades ecosystem the Everglades ecosystem is a treasure to national treasure that this these Python challenges bring a lot of attention to we help engage our citizens in helping us remove pythons from the ecosystem the Python challenge and everyone that is educated and understand that everyone that enters this is part of an environmental hunt this event is all about public awareness education and learning how to be safe in the field get the word out there and engage our public in this really important conservation initiative so I want to get behind it and I want to get it so it's on the move I'm going to pin it right behind the head just like that that way I can get my hand on it the Python challenge is a competition that enlists hunters to catch as many pythons as they can for a chance to win an ATV prize money and more we tagged along with one of the hunters to see what it was really like being being born and raised down here and enjoying the outdoors I am an avid fisherman used to hunt a lot but more of an avid fisherman now and I just I love the beautiful ecosystem of the Everglades and it's just something I just felt like hey I got to get involved with this I love snakes and never been afraid of snakes for the king snake it's a non venomous snake down here in Florida this is honestly my first one I found out here in the Holy Lands rotten burger area all right well now that the sun's going down this is optimal time right now we want to make sure the temperature doesn't get too low but we're gonna work the dirt roads see what we see on the roads it's they stick out like a sore thumb on the road we're gonna find some pockets of some water go down and see if we can find anything in the water and then any rocky areas around bridges overturn logs places of structure debris and to see what we gonna see what we can find so we're in the south side levee right now we're coming up to where the holy lands and rotten burger meat up there are two management areas out here right now what I'm looking for where I'm looking for animal sign racoon friends deer prints where there's food there's snakes all right so we came up with empty-handed I we got skunked but that's why they called huntin not catchin with no guarantees we've had 750 people apply to go out and hunt pythons that's incredible 20 different states from 20 different states around America 10 days ago that's how many pythons we've got Eddie Eddie's the number [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Josh Riemer

Views: 347,236

Keywords: Invasive species, florida, south florida, everglades, nature, invasive, species, nonnative, documentary

Id: 5JaQfFOFYm4

Length: 13min 48sec (828 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020