Bear Grylls finds food in the Everglades(Warning: Not for the squeamish!)

In the Everglades National Park in Florida, the new residents have been trying to find their place in the ecosystem. These Burmese pythons, introduced when their owners abandoned them in the area, are making a grab for the top of the food chain.

Everglades National Park is a national park in the state of Florida. The largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, it contains the southern 25 percent of the original Everglades, the subtropical marshland region in southwestern Florida. About a million people visit the park annually. It is the third largest national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Unlike most other national parks in the United States, Everglades National Park was created to protect a fragile ecosystem, as opposed to safeguarding a geographic feature. It has been declared an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site, and a Wetland of International Importance. There are 36 federally threatened or protected species that exist within park boundaries; these include the Florida panther, American crocodile, and West Indian manatee. Everglades National Park protects the largest U.S. wilderness area east of the Mississippi River.The water system of all of southern Florida is dependent upon Everglades National Park to recharge the fresh water to both the region and the Biscayne Aquifer. It is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America, and it contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. There are over 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals, and 50 different kinds of reptiles that live within Everglades National Park.The Everglades is a slow-moving system of rivers, flowing southwest about a quarter of a mile a day, fed by the Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee. Although humans have lived in the Everglades for thousands of years, it is only since 1848 that they have tried to drain the Everglades for agricultural or residential use, and to control the water flow from Lake Okeechobee, diverting it to the South Florida metropolitan area. The ecosystems in the Everglades National Park have suffered significantly due to these human actions, and the repair and restoration of the Everglades is a politically charged issue in South Florida.