SCIENTISTS have recruited snakes as undercover informants to lure rogue reptiles out of the swamps of Florida.

They have implanted three lusty pythons with radio transmitters and let them loose to find mates in the Everglades, where the snakes are breeding out of control after being abandoned by pet owners.

When the pythons get lucky, the signals from their radio devices tell scientists where to find them, and their new partners are captured and removed.

“It’s the Judas concept,” Skip Snow, a biologist at Everglades National Park, said.

“They betray their own.” With the help of their slithery supergrasses, Mr Snow and a team from the University of Florida have captured 12 renegade snakes. The largest measured 4.9m (16ft) and weighed 69kg (152lb). Experts say that the interlopers must be removed because they are eating endangered species, such as round-tailed muskrats, wading birds and bobcats.

There have also been six recorded fights between snakes and alligators. Last year a 3.9m (13ft) Burmese python burst after biting off more than it could chew when it attempted to swallow a 1.8m (6ft) alligator.

“We don’t want these snakes here,” Mr Snow said. “They didn’t sneak in, didn’t come in on the wind or hitchhike here. They were brought here and are breeding in the wild.”

Burmese pythons, which can grow to more than 6.1m (20ft), weigh more than 91kg (200lb) and live for up to 25 years, are the biggest problem. They have been causing trouble in the park since the mid-1990s when pet owners, who had bought them during a boom in the exotic reptile trade, found that they did not remain pocket-size for long and released them.

“There are state and federal laws against releasing them but, clearly, it doesn’t work,” Mr Snow said.

Pythons are non-venomous, but they have the strength to overpower people, although attacks are rare.

“Attacks are not impossible, but I’d say that someone driving a Honda Civic who hits a python is more likely to have a serious problem,” he said.

Park staff have also been training a beagle named Python Pete to sniff out snakes but the steamy summer temperatures limit his capacity to work.

He has honed his skills by doing dummy runs with a captive python named Bob, who lives in Mr Snow’s office.

“At first I would put the snake a couple of feet away and, if [the dog] sniffed it, he got a liver treat, so he got to associate the snake with a treat,” said his trainer, Lori Oberhofer, who has taught the dog never to touch a snake.

“Now he can find Bob from quite some distance after I lay him in the long grass. The key words — ‘Find it’— send Pete wild. He thinks it’s a great game.”

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