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 ...
Which will then go on to eat all the birds.
Reread the story; slowly. Your comprehension was flawed...
Pythons don’t belong in Florida. Exterminate them. Year round hunting season and no bag limit.
Thank you for really nasty reply. A simple comment would have sufficed.
Read the next post where I acknowledge that I misread the article.
On FR there is no end of Assholes like you that will look for any reason to make disparaging remarks to others. Go join the other guy that complains about people that use commas inappropriately.
Get a life and don’t jump to conclusions based on so little information.
It can be difficult if a bunch of regs are in the way. Send in a bunch of Hmong people in the wild there and their kids landing from Vietnam will clean that place up in no time. They are the only ones capable of growinv vegetables in the Amazon jungle , something the people there for hundreds of years never dared
I agree; it is tasty. Regarding preparation, the one time I saw one butchered was the end of my ordering turtle soup.
Interesting proposal. Tom the Son and I were remarking that, back in the pythons’ native environment, they’re known as “food.”
The last time i commented on snakes released into the wild by accident or design I got some flames from amateur herpetologists. At the time, the story was about a cobra loose in Tampa somewhere.
I usually don’t mind people’s fetishes or hobbies, but this is more about people’s responsibilities and the ultimate bad result of irresponsibility. If they killed 1000, you can be sure there are probably thousands more out there.
I don’t know much about the licensing of python hunters or the bounties paid per snake, but in my opinion there should be open season on them and a serious bounty that would attract lots of hunters.
We got rid of passenger pigeons; why not pythons if the price is right?
Just tell the (asians) that they will enhance their (manhood) and watch those python problems disappear.
Apology accepted and please excuse my ill mannered response.
Non-native invasive pythons have wreaked tremendous havoc & pose a serious threat to indigenous FL wildlife.
From article: // **Tens of thousands of pythons** are estimated to be slithering through the Everglades. Scientists say the giant constrictor snakes, which can grow over 20 feet long, have eliminated 99 percent of the native mammals in the Everglades, decimating food sources for native predators such as panthers and alligators.
Hargrove said the pythons have had a dramatic effect on the landscape he has explored since he was a teenager.
“There’s nothing,” he said. “You used to drive in the Everglades and you would see, easily, 20, 30, 40 rabbits on any given morning. I’ve only seen one since starting this program — one, and he looked scared.”//
Umm, the pythons ate all the critters that were indigenous already. 99% iow, the woods are empty.
if there’s nothing left to eat then the snakes should be starving to death. I find it hard to believe that 99% of mammals are gone-
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.