Florida may have found an unlikely ally in its battle against Burmese pythons: raccoons.
Researchers in South Florida discovered that tracking devices attached to raccoons and opossums could lead them straight to invasive snakes that had eaten the animals, opening a new path for locating the hard-to-find predators.
The finding adds a surprising tool to a long-running effort to protect the state's fragile ecosystems from a species that has devastated native wildlife. For communities that depend on the Everglades and surrounding habitats for recreation, tourism, and environmental stability, better python detection could mean more effective conservation with real-world benefits.
According to WPBF 25 News, a 2023 Southern Illinois University report said the discovery came during the September 2022 monitoring of raccoons and opossums around Key Largo. After some of the tagged animals vanished, researchers who retrieved the transmitters found the signals were leading them to Burmese pythons that had consumed the mammals. In other words, the devices were acting like unintentional snake finders.
That observation led researchers to conclude that transmitter-fitted raccoons and opossums might play a vital role in efforts to trap and remove Burmese pythons.
"We think it's important because these snakes have been very difficult to find, and this may prove to be an efficient tracking method," said Brent Pease, an assistant professor in the SIU forestry program and a researcher working on the study.
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Native to Southeast Asia, the Burmese python is designated as invasive in Florida and took hold there through the exotic pet trade, after snakes escaped or were deliberately released. Since 2017, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has operated its Python Action Team Removing Invasive Constrictors program to target the snakes on public land, WPBF reported.
Burmese pythons prey on mammals and other animals that native ecosystems depend on, disrupting food webs. Restoring those native populations can strengthen the Everglades, a landscape that supports biodiversity and plays an outsized role in South Florida's water system and economy.
As of April 2025, Florida had taken out nearly 24,000 pythons on public lands, with nearly half credited to the Python Action Team and South Florida Water Management District.
Individual actions, python-sniffing dogs, and monthly and annual Burmese python challenges have also greatly contributed to eradication efforts.
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