October 10, 2011

Dorcas and Willson in the Everglades.

Davidson Professor of Biology Mike Dorcas and his former student and co-author J.D. Willson will present their latest book about snakes in a spectacular public "show-and-tell" at Charlotte's Discovery Place on Sunday, October 16.

The book is titled Invasive Pythons in the United States: Ecology of an Introduced Predator, and the Davidson herpetologists will bring along a 14-foot representative of the now-troublesome species for attendees to see and touch.

The presentation begins at 2 p.m. in the Windows on Tryon room, which has a direct entrance on the street, and admission there will be free.

Video credit: Evan Carter '12

A life-long lover and scholar of reptiles and amphibians, Dorcas has written six previous books about snakes and frogs, including Snakes of the Southeast in 2005. Willson is a 2002 Davidson graduate who has collaborated with Dorcas on several projects and publications both during his undergraduate career and beyond. Willson is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Virginia Tech University. He serves as a section editor for "Snake Natural History Notes" in the journal Herpetological Review.

Dorcas (l) and friends handle a 16-foot python they captured in the Everglades.

Dorcas explained that during the past couple of decades, Burmese pythons have escaped or been released into Florida's Everglades by humans who kept them as pets until they got too large to handle. The pythons have thrived in that environment, and consequently have become an increasing concern of biologists and park rangers. Their enormous size-up to 20 feet long and 200 pounds-has put them at the top of the food chain, and created a threat to native species such as wading birds, bobcats, white-tailed deer, and even alligators.

In 2005 Dorcas joined biologists from the University of Florida, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, and National Park Service rangers in studying the python problem. Dorcas and his colleagues have implanted dozens of pythons with radio transmitters to learn about their movements. One surprising finding has been that pythons appear to have a sophisticated homing instinct. One of the snakes the team captured was released more than 30 miles away, then traveled all the way back to the area where it was captured.

Dorcas and Willson also tested the potential range of pythons by putting 10 of them in a cage at a scientific station near Aiken, S.C., to see if they could survive the winter that far north. All of them died, but Dorcas noted that the winter was one of the coldest ever in that area.

Dorcas and Willson have published several papers in scientific journals about pythons, which led the University of Georgia Press to invite them to write the book that they will introduce at the Discovery Place event.

Dorcas and herpetology lab student Maddie Kern '13 show off the lab's resident python at a recent presentation.

Invasive Pythons in the United States is 176 pages, and includes more than 200 color photographs and 15 figures and maps. It covers general python biology, biology of Burmese pythons in their native range, research on pythons in the United States, history and status of introduced pythons in Florida, and the risks pythons pose in Florida and elsewhere. One reviewer wrote, "This text provides a serious, scientifically valid overview of an important ecological problem and will be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of scientists and non-scientists alike."

Dorcas' love of reptiles and amphibians is rooted in the father-son camping and fishing trips of his childhood days in Texas, which often included adventurous treks in search of snakes. He even admits to having kept a python as a pet himself when he was a youngster. Like many other pet python owners, he was forced to get rid of the snake when it got too big . Dorcas was able to sell his, but many other python pet owners simply release their snakes into the wild.

"As someone who has loved snakes since I was a kid, this is a difficult situation for me," Dorcas admitted. "Rather than trying to help reptiles, I recognize that the reptile itself is the problem. The snake isn't naturally a bad guy, but we've put it in a situation where it has become the bad guy."

Dorcas is also pessimistic about efforts to curb the python population in the Everglades. "There's no method now for eradicating or reducing their numbers significantly," he said. "They hide well, and conditions there are favorable for them."

Dorcas earned a B.S. in 1986 and an M.S. in 1990, both in biology from the University of Texas at Arlington. He earned a Ph.D. in biology from Idaho State University in 1995, where he wrote his dissertation on the physiology of a small boa constrictor called the "rubber boa," which is found in the northwest United States.

After completing his Ph.D., Dorcas served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. He joined the Davidson Department of Biology in 1998.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,900 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
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