By: jackie.sauter

“Pythons could slither north as climate warms.”

It sounds like the basis for a horror movie, but it’s not. It’s a headline from Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications.

According to Larry O’Hanlon at Discovery News, the 20-foot, 250-pound reptiles could survive in multiple states by the year 2100 (at that point our climate may resemble their native India or Pakistan).

“The big snakes could comfortably creep through Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey,” he writes.

Well, they can have southern Jersey, as far as I’m concerned.

Of course, they’ve already immigrated to the U.S. A few years ago, researchers discovered a self-sustaining population of Burmese pythons in the Florida everglades – probably the result of a pet released into the wild (Snakehead, anyone?). Since then pythons have been spotted in other regional parks and preserves.

If their mere presence isn’t frightening enough, this fact could do it: they eat alligators. ALLIGATORS. (There’s a photo in that link that is worth clicking on. Trust me).

The story concludes, “USGS researchers are also looking into the potential for similar invasions by nine species of giant constrictors, including boa constrictors and yellow anacondas, which are common in the pet snake trade.”

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor