The story can be found here:
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2012/02/sixteen-foot-long-python-captured-everglades-national-park9475#comment-36838
North America is a very diverse continent geographically while also somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, and thus is prone to invasive plant and animal life originating throughout the world. No matter where something is from, there is most likely a suitable climate and environment somewhere on our continent that is able to proliferate, and in the absence of evolved natural defenses, invasive species can actually come to dominate entire ecosystems rapidly. Native peoples were painfully aware of this in the form of a myriad of diseases unleashed upon them following European contact, and Kudzu, Tamarisk, and Giant Reeds have demonstrated this within plant communities.
Case in point, the Everglades. The only truly tropical portion of North America north of Mexico is southern Florida, which accordingly has become heavily populated in recent decades. Furthermore, the relative affluence of the area means that there are and will be exotic pets, which tend to escape or be released from their homes now and then. Many exotic pets, especially aquarium fish, reptiles, and birds, are tropical in origin, and most do not survive long outside of the warmest parts of the country. In southern Florida, these animals flourish.
Read the story to see why this is a problem, in case the truth was not clear.
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