http://www.citytools.net We focus on finding odd stories from around the world. Join us!!! en 2012-02-07T14:51:57 2012-02-07T14:51:57 httpd:/www.citytools.net/essentials/rss_docs.html http://www.citytools.net/images/rss_logo.jpg http://www.citytools.net 182 35 citytools image http://www.citytools.net/showstory/237c0318-4c9d-11e1-b7d8-c7443b6935d1/ A burgeoning population of huge pythons - many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they became too big - appears to be wiping out raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, a study found. The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically - as much as 99 percent, in some cases - in areas where pythons and other large, nonnative constrictor snakes are known to be lurking. Scientists fear the pythons could disrupt the food chain and upset the Everglades&#39; environmental balance in ways difficult to predict. <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/31/MNDT1N0IJV.DTL&type=green">[original story]</a>