The invasive predators had established a population in the region by 2000, and have since spread rapidly. They all but wiped out small mammals from Everglades National Park, according to a buzz-making 2012 study. And, as Audubon covered last year, scientists worry that South Florida’s long-legged wading birds—a group whose population has plunged nearly 90 percent in the region over the past century or so—may be emerging as their new dietary staple.