An endangered species of Florida rodent has been hit hard by a combination of hurricane damage and invasive pythons. When Hurricane Irma touched down in southern Florida in 2017, it likely dispersed populations of Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) more widely throughout Key Largo. The influx of new reptiles came with an appetite for Key Largo woodrats (Peromyscus gossypinus allapaticola), a federally endangered subspecies of the eastern woodrat (P. gossypinus). Shauna Sayers, a wading bird specialist with National Audubon Society and the lead author of a study published recently in Biological Diversity tracking the decline in numbers of the rodents, told USA Today that the population surge in the large snakes could drive Key Largo woodrats to extinction. “We’ve seen this long-term decline since the 2000s, and they weren’t really able to bounce back after impacts from Hurricane Irma, because of the negative impacts of the Burmese pythons,” she said. The researchers also tracked Key Largo cotton mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus allapaticola), another federally endangered subspecies whose population actually increased for a period after the storm before dropping down again.
