Pythons wiped out

Pythons wiped out

Wednesday, 23/01/2008

Native pythons in South Australia's far north have been virtually wiped out by king brown snakes.

Nine woma pythons were re-introduced to the far north native reserve last year, but ecologists now believe only one is still alive.

Arid recovery ecologist John Read says theye thought the pythons would be the predators.

"We know that king browns snakes also feed on a whole range of different reptiles, including their own kind," he says.

"In hindsight some of the king brown snakes we get here are one and a half to two metres in length that it's not really that surprising that they'd take the occasional woma python that was a bit smaller than them".

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/2007/s2144673.htm

OMG that's shocking news

Thats awful Womas are lovely snakes

For us laymen....

They took small snakes and put them back into places where bigger versions of those same snakes used to live, but got eaten by other snakes?

They put these small snakes in with the same bigger snakes that ate the larger versions of those smaller snakes?

Then they wondered why all of the smaller snakes got eaten by the bigger snakes?

I'm no genius, but I think I see the problem.

King Brown or Mulga snake Pseudechis australis



The king brown (or mulga) snake is found in all arid parts of Australia, and has the greatest venom output, with neurotoxic, coagulopthic and myotoxic actions, but of relatively low toxicity. It has a strongly defined dark crosshatched pattern on its scales, and is more related to the black snakes than the brown. The king brown needs black snake antivenom.