Florida officials propose eating invasive pythons
PALM BEACH, Fla. – Florida is considering a new strategy to cull its Burmese python population by making the invasive snake what’s for dinner.
An initiative between the state’s wildlife conservation commission and department of health is looking at mercury levels in pythons with the possibility of issuing advisories on safely eating the Everglades scourge.
Eric Sutton, director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, mentioned the program this month during an update on the state’s response to Gov. Ron Desantis’ declaration of war on the python last year and a charge to find novel ways to fight the apex predator.
In addition to hiring more hunters, investing in near-infrared technology to better see the snakes, and training python-sniffing dogs, Sutton told South Florida Water Management District board members that FWC is conducting mercury testing on python meat so that the health department could consider guidelines similar to what it issues for fish.
A decade-old study found Everglades National Park pythons carried alarming amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin that can impair brain functioning and damage the reproductive system. Pythons tested by U.S. Geological Survey research Scientist David Krabbenhoft had up to 3.5 parts per million of mercury.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends against eating anything with a concentration greater than 0.46 parts per million.
“We were not used to seeing numbers like that,” Krabbenhoft said. “These guys are just loaded with mercury.”
They can also be tasty if prepared correctly, said water management district python hunter Donna Kalil.
Kalil only eats python a few times a year, and uses a mercury testing kit to look for high levels of the chemical element in her meat.
She also eats python eggs, which she said are good hard boiled with Sriracha sauce.
Krabbenhoft said the high levels of mercury in pythons may be because their bodies aren’t efficient at getting rid of it. In his study, he also found that the link between high mercury levels and age or size was a lot fuzzier than with fish.
“As an organism eating low on the food chain, such as marsh rabbit or rat, we would never have expected them to have a lot of mercury,” Krabbenhoft said about pythons.
Much of the mercury in Florida comes from pollution in the sky, raining down from towering clouds that grab it in the upper levels of the atmosphere.
In Everglades National Park, the mercury mixes with sulfur coming from agriculture upstream. The sulfur oxidizes to sulfate, which energizes microbes that turn mercury into methylmercury, which is what accumulates in the food chain.
In a 2019 study, researchers from Florida Gulf Coast University and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, found lower levels of mercury in pythons that live in the southwest region of the state, including Picayune Strand State Forest and Big Cypress National Preserve.
Darren Rumbold, co-author of the study and director of FGCU’S Coastal Watershed Institute, said when the mercury in rain lands on dry ground or where there isn’t sulfur, it doesn’t turn to methylmercury.
“If the pythons are on higher ground, it’s likely they will have lower concentrations,” Rumbold said. “It’s very analogous to the alligator, where there are certain areas open to harvesting and for the sale of meat. But there are also areas that are hot spots and things shouldn’t be eaten.”
The study also found little correlation between python size, age and mercury level. In the ocean, the largest, oldest fish that have been feeding on smaller prey generally have the highest concentrations of mercury.
“It depends on where the python is eating in the food chain,” said Ian Bartoszek, co-author of the study and environmental science project manager for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.