Posted on 05/22/2018 11:40:36 AM PDT by dennisw
Python hunter Brian Hargrove, right, is helped by Marcos Fernandez, left, with the South Florida Water Management District, as they measure and weigh the 1,000th python caught in the Florida Everglades.
HOMESTEAD — Florida is marking a milestone in its attempt to control an infestation of Burmese pythons in the Everglades.
The state has been paying a select group of 25 hunters to catch and kill the invasive snakes on state lands in South Florida since March 2017. On Tuesday, the 1,000th python collected in that program was measured and weighed at the South Florida Water Management District's field office in Homestead.
Hunter Brian Hargrove collected the milestone snake just before midnight Friday. He is the program's most prolific hunter, capturing and killing more than 110 pythons over the past 15 months.
Hargrove said he was driving slowly along a canal and looking through the grass when he spotted the 11-foot-2-inch-long male snake along a levee.
The area also was habitat for American crocodiles, one of the protected native species in the Everglades that officials say are losing ground to the invasive pythons.
"Getting it out of there was a good feeling," Hargrove said.
When the program began, Hargrove said he hated having to kill the pythons, but he wanted to help save wildlife in the beleaguered Everglades. On Tuesday, he said he still tries to avoid hunting alone.
"I like to hunt with a friend because if we are successful, I don't like to have put an animal down," he said. "It's a beautiful creature. It's not their fault. But it's the job."
Half the 1,010 pythons harvested by hand as of Tuesday have been females, which can produce up to 70 eggs each year.
"We've removed potentially tens of thousands, if you consider their reproductive abilities,"
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
What do they taste like?
YEEHAW baby. The killer elite of useless Florida pythons! 25 select snake hunters and a thousand non native pythons wasted.
Chicken?
Cook, but you can cool them if you want to.
How many pairs of boots is that?
Actually I think alligator tastes more like turtle or fish than it does chicken.
[[but he wanted to help save wildlife]]
By killing wildlife?
I agree the snakes gotta die0- but what a silly thing to say lol
Good. Exterminate them.
Exterminate all the brutes.
[[How many pairs of boots is that?]]
None- snakes don’t wear boots
“Hunters bag 1,000 pythons in Florida Everglades”
It’s a start.
“Hunters bag 1,000 pythons in Florida Everglades”
It’s a start.
Cowboy boot prices expected to drop.
That's a little over 7 snakes a month and he's the most prolific. They will never get ahead of the problem at that rate.
I was just talking about this yesterday with my son. Eradicating an invasive species can be very difficult.
It’s done with deer, elk, and moose populations all the time.
That settles it! Florida needs to introduce some predator animal that will eat or kill the snakes. Only a few animals who are tough enough without being extremely large.
How about a Honey Badger, Mongoose, Bobcat, Raccoon, Golden Eagle, Falcon , Black Bear or Coyote?
PETA is gonna hate people hunting and killing that many pythons.
Solution?
If PETA doesn’t want the hunted and killed, then, they should be hunting them down themselves, and shipping them back to Asia.
Give PETA a a few months to get the job done, and any pythons left after that are fair game.
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