Back around the turn of the century, some genius with a Burmese python realized his chosen pet was a lot more difficult to manage than a goldfish, so he dumped it in the Everglades. Meanwhile, another genius discovered the same thing and also released his or her Burmese python in the Everglades, and — voila! — by 2003, biologists with the park service confirmed an established breeding population of a 20-foot, 300-lb. snake.
But it gets better: See all the green space on the map? According to a new USGS survey, that represents the area of our country that climatically matches the python's historical range from Pakistan to Indonesia. Burmese pythons have already been spotted north and east of the Everglades, so it seems like only a matter of time before these highly adaptable reptiles spread even more.
Unsurprisingly, global warming could play a big part in the invasive animals' spread. Click through to see another USGS projection of the python's suitable range in 100 years:
Everyone knows hippos live wild only in Africa — but that might change in the near future, thanks to infamous Colombian drug cartel leader and all-around douchebag Pablo Escobar. In one of his many outlandish delusions of grandeur, he constructed a private zoo on one of his palatial estates, complete with a herd of hippos. But after Escobar was gunned down, his empire fell and the estate fell to ruin. The hippos ran free, thrived and even reproduced. Now there's even a possibility that the hippos could spread into the surrounding rain forest, becoming one of the larger invasive species in recent memory. Let's go to the tape:
Invasive, yellow cane toads (Chaunus [Bufo] marinus) that weigh roughly 4.5 lbs each have been advancing across The Land of Down Under since 1935, and now occupy more than a million square kilometers, wreaking ecological havoc on native species as they go.
But toads on the invasion's frontlines, researchers from the University of Sydney have found, are stressed out by being foreigners in a foreign land.
Back around the turn of the century, some genius with a Burmese python realized his chosen pet was a lot more difficult to manage than a goldfish, so he dumped it in the Everglades. Meanwhile, another genius discovered the same thing and also released his or her Burmese python in the Everglades, and — voila! — by 2003, biologists with the park service confirmed an established breeding population of a 20-foot, 300-lb. snake. 
