Greater Everglades Burmese Python Stable Isotope Data and Standard Ellipse Area Literature Review

Burmese pythons are an invasive species in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem. Burmese pythons captured in the ecosystem are euthanized, and in an effort to learn about this invasive species, all euthanized pythons are necropsied, during which time samples are collected. We analyzed the stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in muscle samples from 423 Burmese pythons euthanized and necropsied between 2003-05-01 and 2012-09-02, and after processing and QA/QC, we were left with isotope ratios for 410 samples, which we reported here. We used these data to estimate the size of the isotopic niche of the Burmese python, commonly measured using standard ellipse areas, or SEAs. To put these SEAs in context, we conducted a thorough literature review to find published sizes of other isotopic niches, beginning in 2017-01 and finalized on 2018-06-12. We reported the papers we found during this literature review here. We then reviewed each paper and recorded any SEAs presented in the paper or its supporting information, and we presented those results here.