Forget global warming or the continuing descent of the Republican party into gibbering madness, we Floridians have bigger problems to deal with: giant, hybrid, man-eating pythons. FML.
The capture of five African rock pythons recently near an Everglades already teeming with the gentler Burmese pythons has scientists worried about so-called "hybrid vigor" – a phenomenon that occurs when interbreeding uncorks volatile recessive genes, passing traits such as aggression onto the offspring. Think Africanized bees.Anybody know who's in charge of greenlighting SyFy's original movies? I think I have a story for them.
The two species have interbred in captivity. While Burmese pythons aren't known to eat people in their native habitat, the African rock python, unfortunately, has been known to do just that.