Florida is home to more than 500 nonnative species, more than 50 of which are reptiles. As new species become established, they can pose severe threats to native ecosystems, agricultural operations, and even public safety.
Current monitoring techniques depend on visual surveys by scientists, and this is far from an exact science because reptiles — particularly snakes — are extremely elusive. Traditional survey techniques for Burmese pythons are only estimated to be about 5% effective. While there have been more than 20,000 Burmese pythons removed from the Everglades so far, biologists and researchers really don't know how much of a dent that's put in their overall population.
A new technique being developed by scientists at University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) can identify DNA traces of Burmese pythons — as well as northern African pythons, boa constrictors, and rainbow boas — weeks after they have left an area using soil or water samples.
The ultimate goal is to be able to test for what's called eDNA (environmental DNA) to gain a better understanding of these snakes' population size and geographic distribution. And it could someday be used to detect for the presence of other nonnative species in the Everglades and elsewhere.
Guests:
Dr. Melissa Miller, Invasion ecologist at the UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center and lead author of “Development of a Tetraplex Digital PCR Assay for the Detection of Invasive Snake Species in Florida” published in the journal of Ecology and Evolution.
Dr. Brian Bahder, Associate Professor of Insect Vector Ecology at University of Florida and lead of the DNA side of this new study.
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