Tracking Pythons: The Quest to Catch an Invasive Predator and Save an Ecosystem
by Kate Messner
Millbrook Press (March 3, 2020)
Nonfiction * Snakes * Ecosystems
Audience: Grades 5 through 8
Indiebound | Worldcat

Thank you Kate for sharing some of the backstory on Tracking Pythons.

Several years ago, when I was visiting my parents in Southwest Florida, I came down to breakfast one morning to find an article in the local newspaper about a team of researchers who were trying a fascinating new approach to the state’s invasive Burmese python problem. Their goal was to find female pythons and their eggs so they could remove both snakes and unhatched eggs from the ecosystem and prevent the further spread of the prolific invaders. The only problem with that approach is that it’s difficult to find female pythons and nests. Pythons are expert hiders.

But you know who's really good at finding female pythons? Male pythons! So the scientists had come up with a plan to make a few dozen male pythons part of their research team. They captured male pythons, implanted them with radio transmitters, and released them into the wild. When breeding season arrived, the transmitters allowed them to track those male pythons, which often led the team to egg-laden females and more male snakes as well.

I was fascinated by this project and called the researchers on the phone that very day to ask if I might be able to come by to talk with them about the possibility of writing a kids’ book about their work. Project leader Ian Bartoszek said sure, and invited me to a python necropsy (a post-death scientific examination) in the lab that same week. As I watched the team of scientists dissect a giant female python that barely fit on the room-sized lab table, we talked about the scope of the python invasion and why learning more about these giant snakes might be the best way to control their spread. I was hooked, and that was the start of several years of research. I sat in on a python surgery at the veterinarian’s office as two male snakes named Luther and Jaeger had their transmitters replaced. I soared over the Ten Thousand Islands, tracking pythons in a tiny Cessna with antennas mounted on the wings. And I spent several days in the field with the python team, tracking the snakes through high grass, prickly brush, and muddy, knee-deep wetlands. Tracking Pythons takes readers along on that fascinating adventure as it also explores the larger issues of invasive species and ecology.

And now for the official Book Trailer:

Tracking Pythons is available for pre-order now. Look for it at your local indie bookstore on March 3, 2020.