“Race” may be a little strong. I believe the technical term would be “species” or “sub-species.” And the snakes wouldn’t be so much “mutants” as “hybrids,” a combination of two non-native python breeds that have set up their non-native homes in the Everglades. But the rest of it is totally fucking true:
The US scientific community is increasingly concerned that two nonnative python breeds currently slithering free in south Florida could morph into a giant man-eating swamp coil. 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… 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. The rock python “is mean right out of the egg, and they don’t ever tame down,” says Kenneth Krysko, a senior biologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
So that just happened.
References:
* Hybrid man-eating pythons? Florida is on alert. [CSM]
Previously:
* Great News: Monkeys Using Mind Signals To Control Robots With Human-Like Hands
* Neat – Autonomous Robots With Weapons Strapped To Them
* The Coming Battle
