Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Deforestation driving snakes to cities

DRIVER: BIO-DISTRESS & NEW HEALTH COMMONS

As forest falls, snakes take to city
10-foot anaconda is among the migrants leaving destroyed habitat

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Snakes — including one 10-foot anaconda — are increasingly invading the eastern Amazon's largest city, driven from the rain forest by destruction of their natural habitat, the government's environmental protection agency said Tuesday.

The agency, known as Ibama, has been called out to capture 21 snakes this year in Belem, a sprawling metropolis of 1.5 million people at the mouth of the Amazon River, Ibama press officer Luciana Almeida said by telephone.

In normal years, Ibama gets no more than one or two calls a month, she said.

Full story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23580894/

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