Photo via Ian Bartoszek/Conservancy of Southwest Florida Posted on 04/16/2018 3:58:18 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Photo via Ian Bartoszek/Conservancy of Southwest Florida
An invasive Burmese python with a surgically implanted tracking device led Florida researchers to the largest python "aggregation" ever found in Collier County.
A couple of days before Valentine's Day, a male python (or sentinel) nicknamed Argo was fitted with a tracking device and led researchers with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida to a 100-pound female python about to lay eggs.
The female was captured, and Argo was then released to be tracked down again. Just three days later and about a half-mile away from the first location, they found the horny snake attending a record-breaking snake sex party, also known as an "aggregation."
Related A Burmese python in Florida broke a record by regurgitating a deer larger than itself
The researchers found Argo with a pregnant female weighing about 115 pounds and seven other male Burmese pythons. The eight were the most snakes ever found in one place within Southwest Florida and the western Everglades, reports the Naples Daily News.
The Burmese python problem has became such an issue in Florida that the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission allows for the killing and removal of Burmese pythons without a permit. In fact, the FWC encourages people to remove and kill pythons from private lands whenever possible.
True.
What would the “Far Side” do with this story?
That big one looks like it would make some great medallions, if it’s edible.
LOL, I had exactly the same thought!
OMG, he had so many good snake ones! I have the boxed book set!
Check out this snake they found wrapped around the axle of a Cube Point fire truck in the Philippines when I lived there as a kid:
Just think if they put a tracking device on billy jeff clitoon!
And, wow...!
They found a enormous King Cobra curled up in the bottom floor of my next door neighbor’s house.
We were waiting for the school bus, and someone ran over and said there was a big snake in this guys house. We all ran up, and bottom floor of those houses was half carport with screens and clear plastic around the lower floor.
There, curled up in a huge coil in the corner was a great black snake, we all peered at it until someone came by and shooed us all away. When we got on the bus, we saw a fire truck and a regular truck drive up to the kid’s house...
I get the creeps just looking at those things. I find a snake in my yard, it’s dead. I don’t care if I need a permit, or if it’s the last one on earth.
If a bat comes in my house...I kill it.
We had a chipmunk in our garage last winter. I caught it, drove to the nearest soccer field, walked to the middle and let it go. It was probably owl food before I got back to my truck.
Nature is great. Outside of my yard.
I find snakes interesting, but not as pets. I won’t kill them unless I have to.
I wish I could say the same about spiders, though. If they are outside, I don’t mess with them and find them interesting.
If I find one in my house, I will usually kill them. Not proud of it, but can’t help it. And if they crawl on me, it is a certain fight to their death. I can’t take that.
Nothing against them, and it isn’t driven by sadism, but I had a bad encounter in a drain pipe under a road with a spider as a kid. If I knew there was one in the room with me, I wouldn’t be able to do much else.
Well, it wasn’t really a spider I had an encounter with, it was a daddy long-legs, and to this seven year old kid, that is about the scariest thing there is.
I was about seven, and I was trying to crawl through a drain pipe that went under a road. You could see the daylight on the other side, and I don’t know why it seemed like such a good idea, but I was going to crawl right through and come out the other side. Well, as I went in, it got narrower and narrower, to the point I couldn’t go any further, so I began trying to back out.
I tried to look over my shoulder and yell to my brother I was coming back, but as I looked back, there was a big bundle of cobwebs and leaves stuck to my shoulder, with a big daddy long-legs sitting right in it. I completely went berserk in this narrow space, and might have beaten myself to death against the pipe walls, but my brother who was a year older than me crawled in, grabbed my ankles, and dragged me out.
When I exited that pipe, I shot to my feet, running full speed down the street, and pirouetting in the air as I slapped at that mess on my shoulders. But no matter how much I slapped and wiped, every time I looked, that daddy long-legs was still there. I finally ripped off my coat and disappeared down the street with my brother running after me. We both laugh about it now, but I still get a little nutty for a second when one crawls on me.
Great stuff!
He's now back in the West doing bird surveys again. But what a resume enhancer for a field biologist: King Cobra Tracker!
And your kids!
I'm not a big fan of spiders either. Don't know why. Just not. But like snakes, I never kill them (unless I can positively identify one as a black widow or brown recluse. If one of those two species is in or by the house, I will kill it.)
I'm from the desert, and have encountered many tarantulas. I LOVE THEM! They're actually quite docile. This may sound shocking, but I've placed an open palm underneath them and allowed them to crawl up my hand and arm. Yes, you have to mentally psych up to to something like this, but it's amazing fun. They're not aggressive at all, and I guarantee it will amaze and impress your friends.
Or not. They may think I'm a nut but are too polite to tell me. Ha!
Napalm. Lots of napalm.
That’s hysterical! HAHAHA! but true!
He is one dang ugly perverted excuse for a man.......
Brother lives down there says they’ve taken over the swamps areas and killed many of the native animals.....Lots were let loose by people that bought them for pets.
I love it
Outside my yard
My rules are outside my house around here
Too much wildlife
The damn deer and turkeys own the streets
And the coyotes have taken the hills back over
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