243 Pythons are Seed Pipelines

Invasive species are well known to damage ecosystems by directly eating other animals and disrupting the food chain. But their impacts can go much deeper, as a new study about seed dispersal by pythons and tegus in the Everglades has shown - they may be contributing to the destruction of rare and unusual habitats. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/herphighlights/shop Full reference list available here: http://www.herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Figueroa A, Davis KR, Harman MEA, Bartoszek IA, Easterling IC, Yackel Adams AA, Romagosa CM. 2025. Double agents: invasive Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) and Argentine black and white tegus (Salvator merianae) as potential seed dispersers in South Florida. Journal of Zoology:jzo.70082. DOI: 10.1111/jzo.70082. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Harman MEA, Fuller NR, Baiser B, Blackburn JK, Li X, Currylow AF, Yackel Adams AA, Falk BG, Romagosa CM. 2025. Dietary breadth and ecological plasticity facilitate invasion potential in a large omnivorous lizard. Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science 3:1635085. DOI: 10.3389/famrs.2025.1635085. Sapkota, A., Karki, A., Sapkota, K. R., & Baral, R. (2025). First record of death-feigning behavior in common wolf snake Lycodon aulicus (Linnaeus, 1758) from Nepal. Nepalese Journal of Zoology, 9(2), 85-88. Other Links/Mentions: AmphibiaWeb 2008 Acris gryllus: Southern Cricket Frog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/671> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Feb 24, 2026. Acris gryllus from James W. Beck: https://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_query?special=call&genus=Acris&species=gryllus  Editing and Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Species Bi-week theme – Michael Timothy Other Music – The Passion HiFi, https://www.thepassionhifi.com