Florida scientists used female Burmese pythons as live lures to find invasive males in the Everglades, but 3 million camera-trap photos produced only four python detections
Florida scientists used female Burmese pythons as live lures to find invasive males in the Everglades, but 3 million camera-trap photos produced only four python detections.A study published in the journal Southeastern Naturalist shows that placing wild-caught female Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) in cages across the Greater Everglades Ecosystem failed to draw in wild males.Over a 90-day field test at 12 locations, researchers filtered more than three million camera-trap photos using artificial intelligence software. They recorded just three python visits at the cages holding female lures and one visit at empty control cages.The study, titled “Not so fatal attraction: Captive female Burmese Python lures do not improve wild python detection,” was written by Alex D. Potash, Maggie Jones, Michael Kirkland, Jenna Cole, Kristen Hart, and Robert A. McCleery. The research record was published by the USGS Publications Warehouse and carried out through the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center.
Captivity stress and chemical signals
In controlled laboratory settings, male pythons show a strong interest in the scents given off by breeding females. However, the scientists suggest that the stress of living in cages may have stopped the captive females from releasing pheromones, removing the chemical scent needed to attract wild males.Understanding how pythons communicate is still limited. The authors note that finding better care methods to reduce stress in captured females could improve future tests, while further work on python chemistry might help create fake scents to track the invasive snakes.The failed female lure test follows another setback with scent tracking. In an August 2025 study published in Management of Biological Invasions, titled “Mammalian scent lures fail to increase detections of invasive Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus),” researchers tested whether rabbit scent could replace live prey.Written by Storm Miller, Michael Kirkland, Kristen Hart, and Robert A. McCleery of the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, the 84-day experiment across 21 sites brought only 11 python sightings. Four pythons were seen near rabbit scent lures (poop, urine, and hair) and seven near plain soil. While the rabbit scent attracted more native snakes by drawing in live mice and rats, it did not draw in pythons.
The ongoing battle in the Everglades
These scent experiments show how hard it is to find a top predator that has wiped out native mammals like marsh rabbits, foxes, raccoons, and deer.Pythons spread through South Florida in the 1990s when escaped or released pets entered the wild. Today, tens of thousands live in the wetlands. Females can lay up to 100 eggs a year, making control efforts urgent.Despite scent lure challenges, state teams and conservation groups report steady progress through hunting and radio tracking.The Conservancy of Southwest Florida recently announced it has removed 20 tons of pythons from the wild over a decade, setting a single-season record by taking 6,300 pounds of snakes out of a 200-square-mile area since November.The conservancy’s main strategy relies on fitting wild male “scout” snakes with radio trackers during the November-to-April breeding season. The tagged males lead biologists straight to breeding groups, allowing teams to catch large females before they lay eggs.“There’s very good evidence that the scout snake program is our most effective and least biased method. It doesn’t just limit us to targeting human accessible areas and it’s super targeted toward those reproductive females,” said Andrew Durso, a herpetologist at Florida Gulf Coast University. “But it’s expensive to radio-track these males into remote parts of the Everglades where you can’t go very easily. You need air support from a helicopter, which ups the price per python removed. It’s all a balance sheet of how do we want to spend money?”Ian Bartoszek, science project manager and chief wildlife scientist at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, noted that his team’s work has stopped roughly 20,000 eggs from hatching since 2013.“Through years of research we’ve developed science-based methods to track this apex predator more effectively and mitigate its damage to our native wildlife population,” said Bartoszek. “Burmese pythons are impressive creatures that are here from no fault of their own. As wildlife biologists, we have tremendous respect for all snake species. However, we understand the impact invasive pythons are having on the biodiversity in our area and we humanely remove them from the ecosystem.”
Removal programs and public support
The South Florida Water Management District has separately tracked and removed over 15,650 pythons through its Python Elimination Program, which hires paid snake hunters. Public support stays high, aided by annual events like the Florida Python Challenge, which drew 895 hunters who caught 195 pythons in 2024.Mike Kirkland, python program manager at the district, sees signs that removal work is helping key areas.“Every single python that’s removed is positive for the environment,” said Kirkland. “We’re getting better and better at removing this invasive species. We’re learning more about their behavior and life history, and their non-native range here in south Florida, which is leading to more removals and hopefully innovation and novel strategies going forward.”Kirkland added that removing every single python across the wetlands may not be possible, but local populations are changing.“Progress is being made. Anecdotally we’re seeing some demographic shifts, and regionally, we’re seeing less larger size-class pythons in certain areas. That’s a direct result of our management efforts, and our partners’ management efforts,” Kirkland said.“As with most environmental issues, a multi-pronged strategy of different efforts working in concert with one another is really the best path forward,” Kirkland added. “In the future I see the python population being greatly reduced, and to a point where we can begin to see a robust return of our native animal populations, which is why we’re doing all this to begin with. I’m confident we’re going to be able to manage this species to the point where we’re seeing our deer populations, our foxes, our possums, our raccoons and so on, restored to the Everglades.”
