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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 123, No. 1, March 2011 
and other birds is eminent. The seven species of 
rails identified occupy habitats in ENP that are 
familiar to the Burmese python and include both 
freshwater and brackish marshes, riverbanks, mud 
flats, and areas of dense vegetation. Rails have 
been particularly vulnerable throughout history to 
extinction on islands, mainly from introduced 
predators. The extinction of the Guam Rail 
(Gallirallus owstoni) was the first documented 
case of a snake (brown tree snake, Boiga 
irregularis) being implicated as an agent of 
extinction (Taylor 1996). Limpkin were recorded 
in nearly 8% of the samples analyzed. This 
species typically nests in Florida from February 
through June, roosts in trees or shrubs at night, 
and forages noctumally year-round (Bryan 1996) 
making it particularly vulnerable to predation by 
the Burmese python. This python in ENP is noted 
as being nocturnal during June-August and 
mainly diurnal in October-April (R. W. Snow, 
pers. obs.), the closely related Indian python is 
active both day and night (Zug and Ernst 2004). 
The dietary habits of invasive pythons are 
broad and represent a threat to the native fauna of 
the diverse habitats that it is capable of inhabiting. 
Giound-dwelling birds such as rails and egrets are 
particularly threatened because not only are they 
susceptible to predation of eggs and young by 
resident carnivores and birds, but the adult age 
cohort has a newly established effective predator. 
The high reproductive rate, longevity, ability to 
consume large prey (Rodda et al. 2009), and 
consumption of avian species by pythons, is cause 
for serious conservation, educational, and eradi¬ 
cation measures. This predator is particularly 
hazardous to native bird populations in North 
America because birds have not evolved in 
conjunction with a large predator that has both 
diurnal and nocturnal feeding habits and is 
capable of consuming large and small prey items. 
Despite continuing discussions over the potential 
northward spread of these pythons by Rodda et al. 
(2009) and Pyron et al. (2008), Federal species 
recovery plans should seriously consider and 
address this novel threat in future plans. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
We are grateful to the many cooperators who collected 
and processed the samples that were analyzed in this study 
including Bob Hill, Mark Peyton, Jennifer Fells, Alex Wolf, 
Edward Lamivee, Rafael Crespo, and Brian Greeves. S. L. 
Olson (Smithsonian Institution) assisted with the identifi¬ 
cations of osteological material. Marcy Heacker (Smithso¬ 
nian Institution, Feather Identification Laboratory) present¬ 
ed these results to the Subcommittee on National Parks, 
Forests, and Public Lands of the House Committee on 
Natural Resources in Washington, D.C. Nancy Russell, 
South Florida Collection Management Center, Everglades 
and Dry Tortugas National parks coordinated shipping of 
samples and maintains the collections of ENP material. 
S. L. Olson, C. M. Milensky. R. W. McDianrtid (Smithsonian 
Institution), and two reviewers provided comments on the 
manuscript. The Feather Identification Laboratory is supported 
by interagency agreements with the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, 
and Federal Aviation Administration. 
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