Published by the University of Georgia Press in 2011, this book was coauthored by John D. Willson and me, with a foreword by J. Whitfield Gibbons. It brings together the biology, ecology, invasion history, and conservation implications of the large constrictor snakes that have become established in the United States, with particular emphasis on Burmese pythons in southern Florida.
The book grew from our research on invasive Burmese pythons in and around Everglades National Park. We examined how animals possessing traits such as large body size, rapid growth, high reproductive potential,...
Michael Dorcas's blog
Thursday, 2 July, 2026
Thursday, 2 July, 2026
This 2007 study, published in Biological Conservation, grew out of a long-term diamondback terrapin research program at Kiawah Island, South Carolina. The project was begun by J. Whitfield Gibbons in 1983, and I assumed primary responsibility for it around 2000. Now managed by Kristen Cecala and Cris Hagen, it is the longest-running diamondback terrapin study in the world and has generated decades of data, numerous publications, and research opportunities for many students.
Using 21 years of mark–recapture data—including more than 2,800 captures of 1,399 individual terrapins—John Willson,...
Thursday, 2 July, 2026
I was lead author of this landmark 2012 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Our research examined changes in native mammal populations following the establishment and rapid proliferation of invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades National Park.
We compared historical mammal observations with 56,971 kilometers of road surveys conducted between 2003 and 2011. In areas where pythons had been established the longest, observations of raccoons declined by 99.3%, opossums by 98.9%, and bobcats by 87.5%. Rabbits and foxes, which had previously been encountered...