Argument Paper Draft Final Draft

Florida is well known as a tropical paradise. From its popular beaches to its famous Everglades swamps, it is a haven for its native wildlife. A tropical region with plenty of reptiles and birds, these native creatures are well known and loved by the locals. Even the potentially dangerous American Alligator is admired by people. All of Florida’s native species that are a part of the state’s ecosystem are all quite familiar to the locals.

So imagine the shock when around when Cuban tree frogs started gobbling up the native tree frogs, green iguanas appeared seemingly out of nowhere to start eating people’s flower gardens and fruits as well as lounging around parks, beaches, seawalls, and front yards. Then two decades or so ago, huge carnivorous monitor lizards showed up. They started preying on native wildlife, stray cats and dogs, and even endangered species. When things seemed like they couldn’t get any worse, gigantic Burmese pythons appeared and preyed on anything, including livestock, pets, and even alligators. What’s worse is that these 20 foot 250 pound snakes are quite easily capable of killing a human of any size. Along with these creatures, a host of animal species seemed to pop up out of thin air. The major people’s mind is how to get rid of them, or even if they can be removed. With extremely large populations and the animals already adapted to the new environment, it seems that the only course of option is to do nothing about the ones already here and prevent more from being established. It seems that it is already too late to stop the ones here already.

These animals were naturally found as far as a few continents away. It was not an accident that these creatures were brought here. In fact they were intentionally imported here, not to be released, but to be bred into pets. These predators can be good pets in the right care, but when bought on a whim and raised incorrectly, it can have dangerous consequences. Take the Nile monitor for example. Most large monitors can be tamed if done correctly, but this species can be a challenge to acclimate to people. Nile monitors are well known for being aggressive and hyperactive. When raised by a person who understands and is capable of handling such a creature, it becomes a creature that can make a relatively good pet despite its disposition. Though when bought on a whim and raised with little human contact, it grows into huge wild predatory monster. (Buffrenil (1992) considered that, when fighting for its life, a Nile Monitor was a more dangerous adversary than a crocodile of a similar size. Their care presents particular problems on account of the lizards' enormous size and lively dispositions. Very few of the people who buy brightly-coloured baby Nile Monitors can be aware that, within a couple of years, their purchase will have turned into an enormous, ferocious carnivore, quite capable of breaking the family cat's neck with a single snap and swallowing it whole."(Bennett, D. 1995. Little Book of Monitor Lizards, Viper Press, Aberdeen, UK). This is the case with many animals purchased by people. People carelessly buying an animal they know nothing about without doing any kind of pet research is all too common not with just with exotic pets, but also with cats, dogs and other animals bought on a whim.

This is where the problem started. Irresponsible pet owners buy pets on a whim don’t properly research what kind of situation they’re getting themselves into. Sometimes buy big pythons, boas, and even the huge green anaconda, with the intention of using it as a scare tactic or a throwaway pet. Even though people do buy them for the genuine purpose as a pet, when unprepared, they are overwhelmed and left with little options. Rather than giving the pet away to another person or giving it to a shelter, they choose the easy way out. They just let the pet go, hoping that it will survive. In an environment that isn’t what the species is adapted for, they usually don’t survive for long. However in tropical Florida where almost any animal released can survive, they thrive. Even though it could be a drastically different environment to where an animal was originally from, the sheer amount of natural resources available nearly ensures survival. In fact, only animals from cold climates would have a hard time. With many of the same species released into an environment that is highly suitable for life-time survival, the chances for a breeding population taking hold are greatly increased. The Fish and Wildlife Department estimates there are as many as 50,000 non-natives in Florida now, but of those, around 4,300 are capable of causing damage to the ecosystem.

With a species that has no natural predators in a new environment, the results are disastrous. Breeding readily with a low death rate, these invasive species aren’t immediately recognized as prey by the local predators. When they do recognize the smaller invaders as prey, it is usually too late to cut down on the population. There are also those that compete for resources with the native wildlife of Florida. A major problem in Florida is that some of the larger invasive species are even preying on Florida’s top predators. Nile monitors, pythons, and boas are capable of preying on bobcats and other of Florida’s large predators. The massive Green Anaconda, Burmese python and African rock python are capable of preying on the largest of Florida’s predators, the American alligator, the black bear, the endangered Florida panther, and the endangered American crocodile.

The effects of this on people are rather large. The green iguana raids gardens and eats crops as well as flowers. Though this seems like an annoyance, the feces of the green iguana contain salmonella bacteria which can cause severe sickness. Several thousand walking on boardwalks, in food gardens, front lawns, beaches, playgrounds and on front porches, leaves a large amount of their bird-like feces. People who don’t wash their hands put children and the elderly at risk for disease. Fruits and vegetables contaminated with iguana droppings pose a health risk if they aren’t properly cleaned and shipped around the country. Though green iguanas don’t reproduce quickly, they reproduce effectively. The survival rate is high and a very large number of them can eat a very large amount of vegetation that native herbivores would eat.

The bigger risk is of the larger predatory reptiles. No longer pets, several generations of living in the wild has reverted them to seeing humans differently. Many generations in the wild undoes generations of captive breeding. Then they become feral, wild animals reverted from pets that have lost their fear of humans. No longer large pets, they were now dangerous wild predators. A toddler or a small child alone playing unsupervised is fair game for a fully-grown Nile monitor and almost certainly for the larger constrictor. A large constrictor capable of preying on an alligator or a bear is easily capable of killing a full grown human being. Though they have a hard time of swallowing a human headfirst because of broad shoulders, constrictors that sometimes eat people learn to swallow them feet first. The thought of reptiles big enough to kill a family member lurking just behind a hedge would definitely harm tourism. Very few would want to take a vacation where huge predatory reptiles aren’t found living near the water like alligators and could show up on someone’s front lawn.

One of the greatest changes is the result of competition with native wildlife. With many endangered species living in Florida, they are at risk from competition for food, or predation by larger creatures. The green iguana feeds on the same vegetation that many herbivorous birds and mammals eat. The Cuban tree frog devours native tree frogs and eats the same prey as the native tree frogs. The Nile monitor feeds on many species, including the endangered burrowing owl, whose defenses are practically useless against the giant lizards. The many species of giant constrictors are capable of killing and eating the endangered Florida panther and American crocodile. These giant snakes also feed on the American alligator and compete with them for the same prey.

If current trends continue then the delicate ecosystem will either be destabilized and collapse, or in a less disastrous but still unfortunate scenario, transform. An ecosystem with the major niches dominated by reptiles would be the result if the ecosystem’s major species niches got replaced but without total collapse. Such an ecosystem would have small reptile herbivores and iguanas replacing many herbivores. Large monitors and constrictors would outcompete many native predatory mammals. The Florida panther and the American crocodile have a grim future in this scenario because of their already critically low population. The American alligator with its already high population would pull through but with lower numbers due to the host of larger predators competing with and preying upon it. Many non-native species would also cause problems if they became successful like some of the mentioned reptiles.

Some new laws are being created to curb the release of newer invasive species. State legislature is trying to come up with new laws in order to stop more invasive species from being released into the native ecosystem. There are plans for a new law that requires new pet owners to pay a $100 dollar permit in order to own foreign reptiles and require that a microchip be implanted in them once they reach a certain size. They also require people to be over eighteen years of age to purchase and own an African rock or a Burmese python. Certain monitor large monitor lizards also require someone to be over eighteen to buy and own one. With smaller non-native exotics, there is still some uncertainty.

A major issue that has come up multiple times is eradication. The thought of putting bounties on the creatures sounds like a good idea at first until you consider that these species can be pets and a person could break inside someone’s house to kill and sell the body of a pet for money. There are trappers who go out into the wilderness to legally capture and euthanize the feral reptiles. There are even thoughts to legally kill feral reptiles with no license or permit.

When it all comes down to it, the biggest question is that it is even possible to get rid of them. Though some invasive reptile species have low populations in Florida, some other species like those mentioned in this paper, number in the tens of thousands. The Burmese python population has one of the highest of all the invasive reptiles. Though it was not so numerous a decade ago, its population now is estimated to be around 100,000. The green iguana is even more numerous due to being an herbivore. In the last 5-6 years around 6000 green iguanas were trapped and killed, yet that hasn’t even put a dent a dent in their population. Since they have been in Florida for a longer period of time as well being almost everywhere even in the middle of cities, their population is estimated to be in the millions. With the other common types of invasive species, they are already too numerous to eradicate.

With the Florida state government already paying millions to stave off their numbers, they should focus on preventing more invasive species from establishing themselves instead of combating the ones already here. The populations could stabilize once fully established, and the other creatures native to Florida could adapt to them. Many types of birds of prey now prey on small iguanas, and the iguanas are an abundant food source for many types of native as well as non-native predators. The iguana populations could level off from predation in time. The other large non-native reptilian predators could have stable populations once competition with so many large predators causes a die off and later the populations shrink to a number able to be supported by the available prey. Over time the invaders could be seen as part of Florida’s animal fauna. Even then great care must be taken to ensure that more non-natives escape into the Florida wilderness. The ecosystem can only support so many creatures.


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Horne, George. "Prohibiting Pythons As Pets." FDCH Congressional Testimony. 6 November 2009. Congressional Testimony

Hill Jeffery, Assistant Professor University of Florida. "Threats to Native Wildlife." FDCH Congressional Testimony. 8 August 2009. Congressional Testimony

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