In 2022, Museum wildlife biologist Michael Cove and his colleague A.J. Sanjar traveled to Florida to survey the habits of opossums after fitting them with tracking collars. It didn\u2019t take long before they ran into a problem: local pythons kept eating their study participants. Each felled opossum wasn\u2019t only a lost source of information \u2014 it was expensive, too. At the time, each tracking collar cost about $1,500.<\/p>\n
While the issue was annoying, it also prompted an interesting discussion. The pythons that ate the opossums were all euthanized as part of Florida\u2019s conservation efforts. What if researchers intentionally deployed opossums with (much cheaper) tracking collars, then used them as bait for thinning python numbers?<\/p>\n
After a few years of tinkering with the plan and securing additional funding including $190 collars, Cove and Sanjar are planning to use Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Key Largo for their new opossum vs. python experiment.<\/p>\n