At this point they are a widely spread invasive species in the southern US. There are an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 pythons in the Everglades alone. They commonly eat raccoon, opossum, rabbit, fox, bobcat, and other mid-size mammalian species. I think the idea is less to farm them and more to cull them from the wild where they grow unchecked and damage the native ecosystem.
Tuna and tons of other fish are food sources and we don’t breed them. They just grow natively in sufficient numbers. Often invasive species don’t have a natural predator in the new ecosystem, so their population grows unchecked.
Why use CRISPR, birth control, nest culling or other methods which cost resources instead of eating them which is a net gain in resources?
/https%3A%2F%2Ftf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffiler_public%2F52%2F4b%2F524bf090-00ea-4348-b810-1e4e151c41a8%2F49122460068_97fb2122d6_k.jpg)
At this point they are a widely spread invasive species in the southern US. There are an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 pythons in the Everglades alone. They commonly eat raccoon, opossum, rabbit, fox, bobcat, and other mid-size mammalian species. I think the idea is less to farm them and more to cull them from the wild where they grow unchecked and damage the native ecosystem.
That doesn’t make them a food source. Also making them a food source would incentivize some one to breed or increase the extent population.
If we want to control the Python population we need to do so with CRISPR, or birth control, or nest culling.
Injecting a profit motive into controlling invasive species often does not work out. Look to wild boars, pigeons or lampreys for proof.
Tuna and tons of other fish are food sources and we don’t breed them. They just grow natively in sufficient numbers. Often invasive species don’t have a natural predator in the new ecosystem, so their population grows unchecked.
Why use CRISPR, birth control, nest culling or other methods which cost resources instead of eating them which is a net gain in resources?
Commerical fishing at the current scale is not sustainable
All the more reason to pursue food sources from existing invasive species like pythons.